


Eia Au, Eia ‘Oe

by Leslie_Knope



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Case Fic, Developing Relationship, First Time, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-08
Updated: 2016-03-03
Packaged: 2018-05-19 03:42:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 38,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5952388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leslie_Knope/pseuds/Leslie_Knope
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Steve eagerly saves Danny from a disastrous blind date and doesn’t even spare a second thought for the perfectly nice girl of his own that he ditches in the process, it hits him—maybe he should just be dating Danny instead? Luckily the feeling is mutual, but since neither of them have dated a man, there are lots of new experiences to come. Fumbling goofs abound!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> This is a continuation of what I wrote for [chapter 30](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5283317/chapters/12731111) of the most recent McDanno challenge—for the “saving each other” prompt. You can read that first if you’d like, though the beginning of this is that same chapter, told from Danny’s POV instead of Steve’s. 
> 
> Title means “here I am, here you are.”

“After you,” Danny said, holding the door open with a little bow for his date, but she just gave him a bit of a funny look and walked into the bar. He sighed and followed. They’d only known each other for about 90 seconds, but so far this blind date was not off to a good start. He was acquaintances with Jenny in dispatch, and after much pleading and protesting on her part and his part, respectively, Danny had finally agreed to go out with her cousin Paula. The “blind” part was so far not a problem—she was hot, no doubt about it—but Danny was not getting the best vibe.

He scanned the restaurant for an empty table and then did a double-take when he saw Steve. Yes, his partner, Steve, who appeared to be on a date with a lovely blonde woman and who was currently waving at him.

“That’s my partner,” he said to Paula as he led her in his direction. “I just want to say hi real quick.”

“Carol, this is Danny,” Steve said when they reached their table. “Danny, Carol.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” he said with a smile as he shook her hand. “This is Paula.”

“Didn’t know you had a date tonight, buddy,” Steve said. He was leaning back in his chair, smiling, he looked relaxed—good for him.

“Ditto. Guess great minds think alike when it comes to restaurants, huh?”

Steve did his ridiculous little shaka thing, and Danny huffed a laugh, shaking his head. He escorted Paula to an open table nearby and smiled at their waiter, who was waiting with menus and waters.

“So you’re a cop?” she said, tilting her head, and Danny nodded.

“Yep. Detective, actually, with the governor’s task force.”

“Huh,” she said, perusing the menu. “I don’t really like cops.”

Danny blinked. He desperately wanted to ask her why she had agreed to a date with one, then, but he bit his lip instead and stared at his own menu. He tried to engage in conversation, but he didn’t learn much beyond the fact that she lived with a roommate who was “a total bitch” and she hated kids. Yeah, not so much Danny’s type, especially when she dropped a derogatory comment about their waiter that left his jaw dropped for a solid 10 seconds.

“I need to run to the restroom, excuse me,” he said, hoping that his smile looked a little more genuine that it felt. He squeezed his way through the tables and exhaled a sigh of relief as he stepped into the bathroom.

The slamming of the door broke Danny out of his morose thoughts as he washed his hands, and when his head jerked in reflex, he spotted Steve through the mirror.

“Hey.”

“Hey. What the hell, did you follow me in here?”

“You looked upset,” Steve said, crossing his arms. “Everything okay?”

“Ugh. Paula is the _worst_ ,” he said as he spun around. “If this bathroom had a window and if I wasn’t so much of a gentleman, I’d be long gone by now.”

“Yikes. What’s the problem?”

“She’s rude, she seems kind of cruel, and I’m _pretty_ sure she’s racist. I mean, yeah, she’s gorgeous,” he allowed, waving his hand, “but I’m about 15 years too old for that to be the only thing I care about, you know?”

Steve nodded. “What are you gonna do then?”

“I dunno. Grin and bear it, I guess,” he said, wincing at the mere thought. “Just try to eat really fast and get this over with as soon as possible.”

“Or,” Steve said, and Danny immediately tensed—when Steve’s eyes lit up like that, it was usually not a good sign for Danny’s general well-being. “I can save you.”

He furrowed his brow. “How are you going to _save_ me?”

“I’ll come over and tell you that we have a case and that we have to go, right away,” he said, and Steve’s craziness must really be catching because that didn’t sound like a half-bad idea.

“But how are you going to conjure up a case?”

“I’ll just text Kono and ask her to call me,” Steve said with a shrug, as if Kono wouldn’t make fun of him _forever_ , and Danny laughed at the thought.

He opened his mouth to agree but then paused and scratched at his chin. “Wait, no, what about your date? Carol, right? She seems nice,” he said. He didn’t want to pull Steve away from a good date—he really deserved some happiness right now.

“She is nice. But I’ll just tell her we need a rain check, no problem.”

“Are you sure?” Danny asked, twisting his mouth.

“Absolutely,” Steve said firmly. He had that determined face on, so Danny relented.

“You’re insane, but okay. Did Carol drive herself?” he asked, and Steve nodded. “Good, Paula did, too.”

“Okay, go,” Steve said as he pushed him toward the door. “I’ll come get you in a few minutes.”

Danny headed back to his table with a spring in his step. “Your friend is pretty hot,” Paula said after he sat down, twisting in her chair to look. “What’s his deal?”

He gritted his teeth. Hurry up, Kono. “Oh, he’s a cop, too.”

Danny pretty much lost the desire to try, at all, after that, so he let himself drift. He absently watched Steve and Carol and was surprised by the churning in his gut and the weird tightness in his chest—he recognized those feelings, he was _jealous_. But why? Carol laughed at something Steve told her, and it clicked in Danny’s head. He was jealous of Steve for being on a date with, by all accounts, a cool lady who actually liked him.

Danny was not so lucky with _his_ date.

Oh, thank fuck, Steve was getting up from his chair then and heading toward Danny. He straightened in his chair and pasted a look of surprise on his face.

“Hi, Danny. I’m so sorry to bother you guys, but we have a case and we need to go,” he said. Steve grimaced—it was probably intended to be a smile—and escaped, leaving Danny with Paula.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” she said, spreading her arms. “See, this is why I hate cops.”

“Well, now you don’t have to be on a date with one anymore,” Danny said with a cheery smile as he tossed several bills onto the table—enough to include a very generous tip for their poor waiter. “Bye, Paula.”

Danny walked toward the door but stumbled as Paula brushed past him aggressively and flounced out the door. He followed more slowly and met Steve outside, who was standing with his hands in his pockets, Carol nowhere to be seen.

“Okay, whew,” he said, taking an exaggerated breath. “Glad that’s over.”

“C’mon, let’s get out of here,” Steve said with a laugh, leading Danny to the Camaro. He drove a few blocks before turning to Danny and asking, “So what are we going to do now?”

“Uh, I’m still hungry, actually,” Danny said, patting his stomach. “We didn’t get to eat.”

“Same here. You wanna just go back to the bar?”

“Sure, why not,” he said with a smirk—might as well return to the scene of the crime. Danny grabbed the door handle automatically, but Steve actually executed a fairly calm U-turn. “Thanks for doing that, babe, really.”

“No problem. I knew you’d do the same for me.”

Danny nodded but didn’t respond. For all of the sniping and bitching between them, he knew he could count on Steve for anything, and he was glad Steve felt the same way.

“I don’t see a free table,” he said, after they parked again and reentered the bar. “Wanna play some pool instead?”

“Sure. Beer?” Steve asked.

“Yeah, I’ll go get ‘em. It’s the least I can do, considering that you missed an opportunity to get laid just to save me from a bad date,” he said, clapping Steve on the shoulder.

“Well, when you put it that way,” he said with a mock frown, and Danny laughed.

“I’ll be right back.”

When Danny came back, his arms laden with beers and food, Steve was staring at him, his head tilted and his eyes soft. He narrowed his eyes, but Steve just smiled and reached for the beers. “I got two beers, some wings, and some spring rolls, just for you, babe,” he said.

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. Now come on, let me beat you at pool,” Danny said, gesturing to the open table.

“Oh, I doubt that. I’m pretty good,” he said as he crossed his arms and stood a little taller.

Danny rolled his eyes at Steve’s typical competitive machismo. “But you’re not as good as me,” he said.

“How the hell would you know that? You’ve never seen me play.”

“Because I just know that I’m really good. If you’re so confident, then let’s bet on it.”

“If I win, I get to take you out,” Steve said immediately, his face hard, and Danny’s mouth dropped open.

“What did you just say?” he asked, after a long pause.

“If I win, I get to take you out,” he repeated. “Like on a date.”

“Okay,” Danny said quickly, then blanched. What the _hell_? Where did that come from? And why did he say _yes_? “And what if I win?”

“Whatever you want,” Steve said with a shrug, and Danny smiled, trying really hard not to think about what he just agreed to.

“Hmm. I’ll think about it, then.”

“While we’re playing? That goes against basically every rule about making a bet.”

“Take it or leave it, that’s my final offer,” Danny said, spreading his arms.

“Fine. But I get to break.”

“Be my guest,” he said. He took a long drag of his beer, grateful for the opportunity to think for a minute. Why the fuck did Steve _ask him out_ , and why did he say yes? He certainly wasn’t _blind_ , and he was evolved enough to happily admit that Steve was a very attractive man, but that wasn’t—

“Your turn.”

Danny blinked and looked at the table—the balls were scattered nicely, and it looked like Steve got one solid. He took the stick from Steve and easily lined up his shot, knocking the cue ball off the wall and sinking the 11. He got the 13 also, but his third shot just missed, and the cue ball careened wildly around the table.

Danny straightened, turned to Steve, and stifled a laugh—his eyes were glazed over, and his mouth was even open a little bit. “Babe?” No response. He appeared to be stuck in his ogling mode.

“Babe?” he tried again. Steve’s gaze snapped up to his face, eyes wide, looking a little bit like a dog who got caught eating the newspaper again. “Your turn.”

“Yeah, sorry,” Steve said, snatching the stick from his hand. He gave Danny a wide berth, and Danny smirked at the flush on his cheeks.

As Steve set up his shot, Danny took it upon himself to return the favor, letting his gaze slide down Steve’s body. These feelings weren’t _entirely_ foreign, they had bubbled up a few times over the past six years. Danny had a vague idea what they were—he wasn’t dumb, he recognized physical attraction and the allure of strong friendship—but so far, he had been loath to actually open Pandora’s Box and start picking through those feelings. Partly because he’d have to tackle the fact that he was attracted to a man, which was new, and partly because it was _Steve_. So over the years, whenever it popped up, Danny didn’t put a priority on it—he never planned to do anything about it, and _Steve_ was certainly never going to do anything about it because he was straight as an arrow. So why bother?

Well, it looked like he had a reason now.

For the rest of their game, it was pleasantly tense between them where it was usually easy, with a slight edge to the bickering that Danny knew was really flirting. And to make it even better, he won, dropping the eight ball into the corner pocket before Steve could.

“All right, you won, fair and square. What’s the verdict on the bet?” Steve asked. With the crossed arms and casual lean against the table, he was clearly going for nonchalant, but the tightness in his jaw kept him from quite getting there.

Danny drained his beer and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “I’m going to _let_ you take me out.”

“Oh, yeah?” he asked, straightening up a bit.

“Yeah. Think you can handle that?”

“I think I can.”

“Okay,” Danny said, a little too loudly. His bravado was quickly fading, and the urge to escape was strong. “I gotta go, gotta, uh, get some sleep before work. I’ll pick you up in the morning?”

“Sure,” Steve said, lazy smirk firmly in place. Danny determinedly didn’t let his gaze linger and just gave an awkward wave thing before he hustled out of there like his ass was on fire.

* * *

Steve double-checked his gear—gun, phone, second gun, wallet, knife, badge—and trotted downstairs to wait for Danny. His partner was always more pliable when he was caffeinated, so Steve started a pot and leaned against the countertop to wait. He’d done a lot of thinking overnight, and he was confident that he’d made the correct, if rash, decision to ask Danny on a date. He so rarely had instant realizations in his life like he did when he ditched Carol without a second thought last night to help Danny. It was actually a little embarrassing that he hadn’t come to the conclusion earlier…he would rather hang out with Danny than anyone, after all. For all their sniping and jabbing, Danny was his favorite person and certainly the one he could trust more than anyone else. So why not try expanding their relationship?

Sure, he had never dated a man before. But it was _Danny_. And if nothing else, Steve was good at fudging the particulars when the end goal was clear and in sight. At the very least they should try, and what was the worst that could happen? Well, actually, the worst that could happen was pretty bad—he could lose the greatest friend and partner he’d ever had, the person who was always there and who gave him a family. He was trying not to think about that, though.

He may be sure about the decision, but that didn’t mean he was altogether confident in his _actions_ , though. He was able to put on a decent show last night, he thought—the Smooth Dog nickname was not a joke, no matter what Danny said—but this was new, and he was nervous. _Really_ nervous, he amended, when his front door opened and his heart rate spiked.

“Hey,” he called out.

“Hi,” Danny said as he strolled into the kitchen. Steve exhaled a sigh of relief at the sight of Danny’s open-collared shirt—he had been a little afraid that Danny would revert to his tie-wearing ways in a bout of fear and repression.

“How’s it going?”

“So...were you serious?” Danny said, getting straight to the point and gesturing between them. “Last night, with the whole, you know, date thing.”

“Yeah, of course I was serious,” he said with a shrug. “Why not?”

Danny’s eyes widened as he leaned forward, and Steve hid a smile behind his coffee cup. Riling Danny up would never not be fun.

“Why not, he says,” he scoffed, his voice rising in both volume and pitch. “I can think of lots of reasons why not! That doesn’t seem like a good enough reason to do this!”

“Well, you did say yes,” Steve said mildly, handing Danny a to-go mug of the coffee he made.

“Yes,” he said, deflating a little as he looked at the coffee in his hand and then took a long sip of it. “Yes, I did.”

“Did you mean it?” he asked, trying not to look like he was too invested in the answer.

“Lord knows why, but yeah, I did.”

“Then we’re doing this.” Steve drained his coffee, rinsed the mug, and brushed past Danny toward the door. “C’mon, let’s go, don’t wanna be late!” he called out over his shoulder, smiling again at Danny’s splutter.

They drove most of the way to HQ without addressing it, instead discussing Danny’s last weekend with Grace and the weather, of all things. It was silent for a long moment before Danny spoke up.

“So, do you, uh, do you do this often?”

“What?” Steve said, just to be difficult, tilting his head. “Take my partners out on dates?”

“You know what I mean, you asshole,” Danny said with a huff, and Steve grinned. Yeah, maybe everything would be okay.

“No, I don’t. Do you?”

Danny shook his head, and Steve exhaled. At least they were in this together and Danny hadn’t been hiding something from him all this time. “So then we—”

“So,” Steve interrupted as he pulled into a parking spot, “tonight we’re going on a date. I’ll come pick you up, wear something nice.”

Danny climbed out of the car and ran his hand over his hair. “Not that I’m surprised, of course, but I feel like I should protest the extent to which you’re taking control of this.”

“Yeah, but you don’t actually want to,” he said, smirking as he followed Danny toward the steps.

“Fine,” he said, throwing up his hands. “But no talking about this at work, yeah?”

“Good with me,” Steve said with a firm nod.

Turns out they had no time to even think about it, let alone talk about it, because they hadn’t even been in the office 20 minutes before Steve’s phone rang. “That was Duke,” he reported after he hung up, as everyone automatically gathered their gear and headed for the door. “The chef at Petal, a restaurant on Kuhio, was found dead this morning. He’s texting us the address, let’s go.”

“What’s our tie to this case?” Danny asked when they were on their way. “Possible murder is usually HPD’s jurisdiction.”

“They’re apparently swamped right now and since we don’t have a current case, we’re taking this one.”

“Jesus Christ,” Danny said, grabbing for the bar over the door as Steve took a turn a little too quickly. “You know he’s already dead, right? There’s really no need to risk life and limb to get there.”

Steve smirked and pulled up to the restaurant a full two minutes before the others, as was his goal. They ducked under the tape to go inside, and Steve scanned the dining area—it was definitely a fancy place—but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, except for an attractive blonde woman who was crying in the corner and being awkwardly consoled by an HPD officer. Danny was already heading for the kitchen in the back, and Steve followed.

“Hey, Duke,” Danny said, clapping him on the shoulder, and Duke nodded at them.

“Gentlemen. Meet William Saxson, he’s the executive chef.” He stepped aside and Steve winced at the sight.

“God,” Danny said as he moved closer to get a better look. “Stabbed in the back, it looks like.”

“If so, that’s pretty personal,” he said, stepping up to him. The chef was a tall guy, brunette, and he didn’t appear to be a local. “Is Max—”

“Hello!” They both turned at the cheery voice. Laden down with a bulky bag, Max waved at them with his free hand. “Detective Williams, Commander McGarrett, it’s always good to see you, barring the circumstances, of course.”

“Hey, Max.”

“Oh, what a shame,” he said with a sigh as he stepped closer to the body. “I had heard so much about this restaurant. Sabrina and I have reservations for next week.”

“Really?” Danny asked. “Is it new?”

“Yes, it’s only been open for a couple months and it’s supposed to be excellent. Mr. Saxson is a renowned chef from the mainland—Los Angeles, I believe.”

“Huh,” Steve said, scratching at his chin. “Maybe a rival chef, pissed off that Saxson was encroaching in his territory?”

Danny pursed his lips and nodded. “Maybe,” he said, then he turned to Duke. “The woman out front, is she the one that found him?”

He nodded. “Yes, Leslie Prentice, she’s the general manager here.”

“Let’s go talk to her, then,” Steve said, jerking his head toward the kitchen door. “Be back in a bit, Max.”

The woman was still crying, though less hysterically now, and Danny guided her to sit down at a nearby table. “Hi, Leslie, right?” he said, smiling gently at her. “I’m Detective Williams, this is my partner, Commander McGarrett. We’re with 5-0, and we’re investigating this case. Can you tell us what happened?”

“Hello,” she said, sniffling. “I, uh, I came in this morning around 8, like usual. William is often here before I am, so I went back to the kitchen to say hello. And then I, I saw him.”

“Did you notice anything amiss?” Steve asked.

She shook her head. “The front door was locked, just like it was when I left last night. I didn’t check the back door or anything, though, as soon as I saw him I called the police.”

“Was anything taken?”

“I don’t know,” she said with a watery laugh. “There are computers in the office, of course, and there’s some cash in the safe. But I haven’t checked—as I said, I called the police right away and then went back to my car. I was scared.”

“Very understandable,” Danny said, handing her a tissue from his pocket. Steve shot him a confused look, and he rolled his eyes. “I have kids, of course I have tissues,” he hissed, and Steve stifled a smile.

“And what’s your role here?” he asked Leslie.

“I’m the general manager, which means I’m in charge of everything outside the kitchen. William and I have been in business together a long time, and we jointly invested in this restaurant. We moved here about six months ago from LA.”

“Was he your husband?” Steve asked, noting the slim gold band on her left ring finger.

“Oh, no,” she said with a little laugh. “My husband is an accountant.”

“Was William seeing anyone?”

“Not that I know of,” she said with a rueful smile, shaking her head. “He is—god, he _was_ pretty devoted to his work.”

“Was there anyone he didn’t get along with?” Steve asked. “Any disagreements, anything like that?”

“Well, I, I don’t—” Leslie said, biting her lip.

“We’re not asking you to name suspects, don’t worry,” Danny said with a smile. “We’re just trying to figure out more about his life.”

“There’s another chef,” she said slowly, “named Ryan Temple. His restaurant is only a few blocks away, Fortunada. I’ve only met him once, briefly, but from what William told me, he was not very welcoming of our restaurant in the neighborhood. Just kind of generally being a jerk, apparently.”

Steve shot a glance at Danny, who raised his eyebrows. Maybe their initial theory was correct. “Thank you, Leslie,” Danny said, patting her arm and handing her a card. “My number is on there, so please call if you think of anything else, anything at all, that could be important. We might be in touch if we have more questions, and we’ll have someone check in with you to see if there’s anything missing.”

“Thank you,” she said, clutching the card in her hand. “Please let me know if there’s anything else I can do to help.”

Steve smiled at her and headed back into the kitchen, where Max was repacking his bag. “What’s the word, Max?”

“Based on my preliminary examination,” he said, standing carefully, “Mr. Saxson was killed around two o’clock this morning, with a standard size knife. I will have a more thorough explanation after I perform an autopsy, of course.”

“Well, it’s not like we have a shortage of knives here,” Danny said, looking around the kitchen pointedly. “I’m guessing no one has found a bloody one?”

Duke chuckled and shook his head. “No, sorry.”

“We should still take them all, though,” Steve said with a sigh. “Check for blood, prints.”

“You really think he would’ve taken a knife from _here_ , killed him, then cleaned it and put it back?” Danny asked clearly skeptical.

“No, probably not,” he admitted. “But it’s worth a try.”

“Yeah, you’re right. That would mean he probably knew his attacker, though, if he had the time to do that.”

“And that it was spur-of-the-moment.”

“Okay,” Danny said with a sigh. “We’ve got a lot to go through, let’s get started.”


	2. Chapter Two

“Well, we can be fairly sure it wasn’t a robbery,” Kono reported, through a mouthful of her burger. The five of them had met back up at HQ that afternoon to wolf down a quick lunch and exchange information. “We went into the office with Leslie, and according to her, nothing had been taken. There were a couple laptops out in plain sight, and the safe hadn’t been touched. There was about $2000 in cash in there.”

“So then it was definitely personal,” Danny said with a nod.

“The back door was unlocked, but it didn’t look like it had been picked,” Chin said. “Leslie said she left around midnight, and Saxson was the only one there. He liked to work late, apparently, and often slept on the couch in the office.”

“And we’re working on getting in touch with all of the staff,” Grover chimed in. “Both to get their prints and their statements, see if anyone knew anything or had any beef with Saxson.”

“Good work,” Steve said, folding his arms across his chest. Man, his team was great. “Have we gotten lucky with security cameras?”

“Petal only has one camera, in the front,” Chin said, swiping a video still onto the big screen. “It’s unlikely that it captured our assailant, considering that the front door was locked, but we’ll go through it anyway.”

“Right, I mean, it could have been someone who has a key. We should ask Leslie who has keys,” Danny said as he turned to Steve, who nodded.

“Good idea. So nothing in the back?”

“Well, Petal shares an alley with an electronics store, which does have a camera. They said they would send over the footage, but we haven’t gotten it yet. Just from the placement of the camera, it doesn’t look like Petal’s back door is in view, but maybe we can still pick up something.”

“Yeah, let’s hope so. When we talked to Leslie, she mentioned that Saxson had been having a rough time with another chef, Ryan Temple. Do we have anything on him?”

“Gimme a sec,” Chin said, looking down at the screen. “Okay, there are two. One is 73 and lives on the North Shore, the other is 36, lives in Kahala.”

“Show us the younger one.”

Chin nodded, and a driver’s license popped up on the screen, as well as a mug shot and a lengthy rap sheet. “A few priors,” he summarized, “including a short stint in Halawa several years ago for armed robbery. Has been perfect on parole ever since.”

“Not looking good for him so far,” Danny said.

“I found something else,” Kono said, holding up her iPad, and they all turned toward her. “There was a review of Petal in the paper a few weeks ago.”

“A good one?” Steve asked, and she nodded.

“Very good. She called it Oahu’s next great restaurant and compared it specifically to Fortunada, saying that Saxson is the executive chef that Temple wishes he could be.”

“Ouch,” Grover said with a wince. “That’s possible motive, right there.”

“Sure is. Danny, let’s go talk to him. You all see what else you can find about these guys and if you can pull anything useful from the security footage.”

“You got it, boss,” Kono said, with a mock salute, and Steve cracked a grin.

“Should we try his house or his restaurant?” he asked Danny on their way to the parking lot.

“The restaurant, I suppose. Middle of the afternoon, greater chance he’d be there.”

It wasn’t a long drive to Fortunada, but their excursion was fruitless. “Does the timing seem a little suspicious to you?” Danny asked, once they were back in the car.

“Just a bit,” Steve said with a snort. The sous chef at Fortunada had told them that Temple had the day off, and he was hiking with his girlfriend in the mountains. They’d left that morning and weren’t due back until the next day. “Well, we’ll be there in the morning to welcome him home.”

* * *

Since they hadn’t had a chance to talk with Temple that afternoon and hadn’t stumbled upon any new leads, Steve surprised everyone by telling them to go home at a normal hour.

“You sure, boss?” Kono asked, skeptical.

He nodded. “Temple is our main suspect right now, and we can’t talk to him until tomorrow. Nothing else has panned out, but who knows what this case will be like—might as well get our rest while we can.”

No one else put up any semblance of an argument, and five minutes later Steve found himself standing with Danny by the door. “Did you do that for our date?” he asked, waving his hand to encompass the room. “Sending everyone home like that.”

“Hey, you’re the one who didn’t want to talk about this at work,” Steve said, lifting his hands, and Danny rolled his eyes.

“No one’s here, come on.”

“No, I didn’t. I meant it—there really isn’t anything else we can do right now. But,” he added. “It doesn’t hurt.”

Danny huffed and walked out the door, calling over his shoulder, “Okay, come on then, let’s go.”

Steve drove Danny to his house first, amid his vociferous protests. “I said wear something nice, remember?” Steve said. “Plus, we spent a lot of time today around a dead body, the least we can do is shower.”

“So  _you_  are going to pick me up for our date in  _my_  car?” he asked, bracing his forearms on the open passenger side window.

“Exactly,” he said cheerfully. “Be back in an hour.”

He drove off before Danny could protest more and before he could lose his own nerve. Steve forced himself to drive carefully the rest of the way home—he couldn’t remember the last time that he was so nervous about a date. There was a lot riding on this.

He took his time getting ready, shaving carefully and extending his shower to a full five minutes. He really wanted to wear a tie, just to see what Danny would say, but he couldn’t quite make himself do it. So he settled for dark pants and a white shirt, open at the collar. He thought he looked pretty okay, but he still gave himself a little pep talk in the mirror. 

And he continued the pep talk as he drove back to Danny’s. It was going to be fine. Because it was _Danny_. Danny wanted this, too, somehow—it was still a little hard for Steve to believe that—and so they were on the same page. Plus, he was just as new at this as Steve was, and they were going to figure it out together. It was going to be fine. No matter what.

He didn’t even get the chance to knock on Danny’s door because he was waiting outside, right on time, and walked over to the passenger side as soon as Steve pulled in the driveway. Danny folded himself in the seat and gave Steve a quick, appraising once-over. “You look nice, babe,” he said, and Steve smiled.

“Thanks. You do, too.” Sure, Danny was wearing basically what he wore on a normal workday—nicely-tailored slacks and a blue button-down—but Steve always thought he looked nice. And tonight was no exception. “No tie?”

Danny huffed and smoothed his shirt, where his tie would rest. “I wasn’t sure where you were taking me. Plus, I seem to remember that you like the no-tie look.”

Steve smiled, glad that Danny had both remembered his preference and catered to it. “I almost wore a tie,” he admitted, and Danny laughed, loud and bright.

“Next time, babe.”

Steve tried to concentrate on their conversation during the drive, but Danny smelled so _good_ and it was quite distracting. Why had he never noticed that before? It was a different scent than usual, which he figured meant that Danny put on cologne instead of his usual aftershave. He couldn’t say that he’d ever gotten turned on by a guy’s smell before—or even noticed it in a positive way, really—but he figured that he was in for a lot of firsts over the next few months.

He paid enough attention to get them to Hy’s, a steakhouse in Waikiki. It wasn’t a particularly thought-out decision—Steve had been there once before and he knew Danny liked steak. Plus, it was pretty fancy, which he thought was appropriate for their first date. He was starting to reevaluate his decision, though, as he and Danny sat at their table in silence, just looking at their menus. The two of them had eaten together hundreds of times but never like this, with white tablecloths and an open bottle of red wine in between them.

“So,” he said, his voice so falsely cheery that it made him wince. “Whatcha gonna get?”

“Steak, I think,” Danny replied, his eyes narrowed. “With a nice baked potato. Classic.”

“I’m leaning toward the tuna.”

“Tuna? At a steakhouse, really? They’re called specialties for a reason, Steven.”

“It’s Hawaii,” he said with a shrug. “Every place does good tuna.”

Danny snorted but didn’t say anything else. After they ordered, he leaned back in his chair and took a deep breath. “When you said this morning that you hadn’t really done this before, what exactly did that mean?”

“I’ve never,” Steve said, choosing his words carefully. “I’ve never done anything with a guy. I have noticed that some guys are, uh, aesthetically pleasing, I guess, maybe, but I don’t think I’ve ever even been attracted to a guy, really. Well, until you.”

Danny tucked his lower lip in between his teeth and nodded.

“What about you?” Steve continued.

Danny shook his head. “No, nothing. I mean, I’ve maybe noticed a couple things over the past few years that have been...aberrational, but I never really wanted to think about it too hard.”

Steve tilted his head. “What do you mean?”

“You, uh—you’re not exactly a bad sight without your shirt on, you know.”

“Thank you,” he said, grinning as Danny’s cheeks pinked.

“Shut up. I am never complimenting you again, I swear. Your ego doesn’t need _any_ help.”

“Well, at least we’re on the same page here.”

“Yeah,” he said with a snort, “total virgin territory. Shit…bad choice of words.”

Steve laughed at Danny’s grimace. “Appropriate, though.”

The waitress arrived with their food, and Steve licked his lips—that tuna looked delicious. After he had his first bite, he asked Danny how his steak was.

“Good,” he said, around a mouthful. “Yours?”

“Very good.”

It was quiet for the next several minutes as they ate. Not surprisingly, Danny broke the silence first. “This is weird, isn’t it?”

“So weird,” Steve agreed immediately.

“Like good weird or bad weird?”

He sat back and thought about it for a second—yeah, it was kinda awkward so far, but overall he was happy to be here with Danny. “Good weird,” he concluded.

“I agree. I think. But why is it weird?” Danny asked, draining the wine in his glass. “We’ve done this a hundred times before.”

“True. But now I’m going to pay for your dinner and maybe kiss you in the car.”

Danny paused for a long second. “Yeah, you’re right, the fact that you’re paying is weird,” he said with a smirk, and Steve laughed.

“Plus,” he said, lowering his voice. “I don’t this place is very _us_.”

Danny nodded vigorously. “I think that’s mostly why it’s weird.” 

“Right? I mean the two of us having a meal together is not new. If you really think about it, I think we’ve been on a lot of dates. So this shouldn’t feel that weird.”

“Yeah. I was thinking it was us, but it’s the place. It’s already enough of a change to have an ‘official date,’ and then with you, sitting there in your nice clothes drinking wine, it’s too—”

“That’s my fault. I thought it had to be special, and well—”

“Which is nice, but I don’t think the two of us need a place like this,” Danny said, gesturing widely, “to make it feel special.”

Steve nodded, relieved. “Maybe we just need to start smaller. So what do you say we try again, maybe somewhere more casual?”

“Yeah,” he said with a slow smile. “How about tomorrow?”

“It’s a date.”

“Good,” Danny said, pausing to smile at the waitress who dropped off their bill. “But since this was your bright idea, you’re definitely picking up the check.” 

Steve laughed and grabbed for it. “You got it.”

“I’ve never seen you pay for something so eagerly before, that is _definitely_ what’s weird.”

The pressure was lessened already, and things between them seemed nearly back to normal as Steve drove them back to Danny’s. Danny jumped out of the car as soon as he put it in park, though, before Steve could even entertain the thought of a goodnight kiss.

“So since you’ve apparently commandeered my car, I expect to be picked up tomorrow morning,” Danny said. He’d come over to the driver’s side and was looking down at Steve, his hands in his pockets.

“Yeah, you got it,” he said with a nod. Hell, he’d probably agree to anything. “I’ll even bring malasadas.”

“Well, look at that,” Danny said, his mouth curling into a lazy grin. “I could get used to this whole dating thing.”

Steve laughed, then _waved_ , then immediately felt like an idiot. “Night.”

“Night, babe,” he said as he slowly backed away. “See you tomorrow.”

Steve assessed the operation as he drove home. Overall, pretty solid. He should have dedicated more intel to their destination—a fancy steakhouse wasn’t really their thing, and it put too much pressure on a first date, especially for them. But they were able to talk about it, and other than that, it really didn’t feel that strange. Yeah, he probably should have manned up and kissed Danny, but he couldn’t lie, he was still a little nervous about the physical side of this.

No better way to face fears than head-on, so Steve headed straight for his bedroom, stripped, and got in bed. He almost felt a little… _dirty_ , lying there palming his dick and thinking about Danny, like it wasn’t consensual or something. But it was okay, right? They were “dating” now, after all. And he wouldn’t mind if Danny thought about him while—wait, that was a nice image. Oh, look at that, he was fully hard now.

Steve didn’t exactly have a memory bank to rely on for this situation, so he wasn’t even sure what to think about. Well, Danny was handsome, he probably looked good naked. The top half was nice, anyway, and for the first time in his life, he wondered what another guy’s dick looked like. He could imagine Danny kissing him, that would be nice, they’d be in his bed, with their shirts off, and Danny was probably a fucking amazing kisser, all that exercise his mouth gets, and maybe their pants would be off too, maybe Danny would figure out that his nipples were really sensitive, and he could grind up against his abs, and Danny would be on top of him, holding him down, and—

Steve gasped and arched up as he came hard all over his stomach, a little faster than usual. Well, maybe this could work after all.

* * *

Danny snatched the last malasada out of the grease-stained bag and popped the whole thing into his mouth with a happy groan. Steve had brought the pastries this morning, as promised, and it was giving him something to do while they waited at Temple’s house for him to get home.

He licked the sugar off his thumb and noticed out of the corner of his eye that Steve was staring at him. “What?” he asked, turning, but Steve just shook his head and shifted his gaze frontward.

“Nothing.”

“Ooh, look,” he said, jerking his head. “The car registered to Temple was a pickup truck, wasn’t it?”

Steve turned in his seat, and they both watched as a black truck drove slowly down the block and then pulled into the driveway of Temple’s house. “Definitely him, let’s go.”

Danny hopped out of the car and hurried to catch up. “Ryan Temple!” he called out to the tall guy rummaging through the truck bed.

“Who’s asking?” he asked, turning around slowly, frowning.

“5-0,” Steve said, pointing to the badge on his hip. “We have some questions for you.”

“Ryan? What’s this about?” A woman, petite with auburn hair, came around from the other side of the truck, frowning. The girlfriend, Danny supposed.

“Why don’t we go inside and have a little chat?” Danny asked, gesturing toward the house.

“No, how about you guys tell me what you’re doing here? I know I haven’t missed a meeting with my parole officer.”

Steve sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. “We’re talking about William Saxson, who was found murdered yesterday morning.”

The woman gasped, her hand over her mouth, and Danny turned toward her. “Did you know him?” he asked, and she shook her head.

“No, not really. Only through, you know,” she said, gesturing toward Temple.

“Jane, why don’t you go inside,” Temple said, nodding in that direction, “and I’ll deal with this.”

She frowned at him but grabbed a bag out of the truck bed and hurried into the house.

“What the hell is this about?” he hissed. “Do you think I had something to do with this?”

“You tell us,” Steve said with a shrug. “Word on the street is that the two of you didn’t get along.”

Temple snorted and shook his head. “Yeah, cause Saxson was a prick. But I didn’t _kill_ him.”

“We read the review of his restaurant in the paper a couple weeks ago,” Danny said. “Wasn’t a very favorable comparison between the two of you.”

“Of _course_ it was a shitty review,” he said with a huff. “But Pam Riggins is a bitch and doesn’t know anything about food. I didn’t put that much stock into it.”

Danny nodded slowly and stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Name calling, very nice.”

“So what were you up to two nights ago?” Steve asked.

“I was working, til about 11, then I went to a few bars downtown.”

“Anyone with you to corroborate that? Jane, maybe?”

“No, she was having dinner with her sister,” he said, through gritted teeth. “I was alone.”

“And where’d you go?”

“Uh,” he said, scratching at his forehead, “I was definitely at Arnold’s and Tsunami’s, but I don’t really remember much beyond that. I got pretty drunk.”

“Hmm,” Danny said. “Anything else you can tell us about Saxson? Other people he might have had beef with?”

“I mean, I would assume so—like I said, he was an arrogant prick. But I don’t really know.”

“How can we find you if we have more questions?” Steve asked.

“I’m almost always at Fortunada,” he said with a shrug. “Can I go now?”

Steve nodded, after a long moment, and they both watched him retreat into his house.

“What do you think?” Steve asked when they were back in the car, and Danny sighed.

“I don’t know. Flimsy alibi, but we can look at his credit cards. Or maybe we’ll get lucky and have a fingerprint match.”


	3. Chapter Three

“Yeah, Fong, you’re on speaker,” Steve said. “What’ve you got?”

Danny leaned forward, bracing his elbows against the table, and shot Steve a quick, surreptitious glance. He was pleasantly surprised that things between them seemed fairly normal—at work, at least. That had been one of his concerns, of course, because he really did love their partnership and their team. Not that he would, you know, say as much, but it was true. The concern certainly hadn’t gone away, but he didn’t think that anyone looking at them right now would guess that they were dating—certainly they could put this _thing_ on the back burner at the office, right? Not that he was proving that point very well at the moment, though, by thinking about Steve instead of their case, so he tuned back into the conversation with a wince.

“Well, we got a ton of prints,” Fong was saying, his voice a little tinny through the speaker. “At least a dozen people probably, not surprisingly. We’re still going through them.”

“You got the prints of the kitchen staff that we sent over, right?” Grover asked. “We’re about halfway done, more should be coming tomorrow.”

“Yeah, we got ‘em. This is our priority case right now, but it’ll still take us a little while to match everything up.”

“And what about the knives?” Kono asked.

“No blood traces yet, we’re almost done with those. We’re looking there for prints, too. Anything we can try to find a match to, besides the few staff prints we have?” he asked, and Steve and Danny shared a glance.

“Yeah, Ryan Temple,” Danny said, raising his voice so Fong could hear. “He’s a suspect and isn’t part of the staff, so his prints shouldn’t be anywhere. He’s been booked before, though—”

“So his prints will be in the system,” Fong finished. “Got it. I’ll let you guys know when we find something.”

“Thanks, man,” Chin said, cutting off their connection. “So you guys said Temple had an alibi?”

“Yeah,” Steve said with a sigh, “but it’s weak. Said he was bar-hopping, by himself. He only remembers a couple places he went to.”

“Well, we can check his credit cards and security cameras, at least.”

“Oh, speaking of security cameras,” Kono said, “we got something from the electronic store’s camera. It’s not great, though.”

“Let’s see it,” Steve said, nodding, and she swiped two stills onto the big screen. It was a guy dressed in dark clothes, with a baseball cap on. They couldn’t tell anything about his features, not even his race, except that he was 5’11”-ish and slim.

“This guy passes through the camera twice, at 2:12 and then 2:20. You can’t tell if he actually went into the back door at Petal, but it’s definitely possible.”

“Max said he was killed around 2, so that could work,” Steve said.

“Any chance that’s Temple?” Grover asked.

“Could be,” Danny said with a nod. “He’s about that height and build, but so are lots of other guys.”

“How’d the interviews go with the rest of the restaurant staff?” Chin asked, and Grover sighed.

“We’ve talked to about half of them so far,” he said. “We got prints, and we’re starting to go through alibis.”

“Did any of them mention Saxson having trouble with anyone?” Steve asked.

Grover shook his head. “No, quite the opposite actually. All the ones we’ve talked to so far said he’s a great boss, good friend. They couldn’t think of anything.”

“Which doesn’t fit with what Temple told us this morning,” Danny said. “He used the word _prick_ more than once.”

Steve groaned and scrubbed his hand through his hair. “Okay, then we better hope that we get lucky with a fingerprint. We’ll go check out Saxson’s place tomorrow, and in the meantime, let’s start going through his financials. Maybe he got involved in something shady.”

* * *

Danny cruised to a stop in front of Steve’s house and did some neck circles, rotating his head and trying to relax his shoulders. Their date yesterday had been awkward but not unbearably so, and he still really thought that this could work. He had no idea where this sudden streak of optimism came from, but for the moment he was just going with it. Plus, he meant it when he suggested that much of the weirdness was coming from the setting, so that night they were trying something different. _Danny_ was driving his own car, as was appropriate, and they were going to a place that was a little more their speed.

He checked the dashboard clock and frowned—it was 7:05, and Steve was rarely late. So with a sigh, he levered himself out of the car and walked up to knock on Steve’s door. It swung open immediately, and Danny scowled. “Seriously? Were you just standing there waiting for me to come to the door?”

Steve shrugged, his mouth quirking in that little grin that, troublingly, Danny was starting to find attractive instead of annoying. “Just wanted to see if you would actually do it.”

Danny huffed but let a little smile show as he turned back toward the car. “Well, I did. But I’m not opening the car door for you,” he said, shoving Steve forcibly in the direction of the passenger seat.

“Chivalry is dead,” Steve said sadly, shaking his head, once they were both in the car, and Danny laughed.

“Sorry about that, princess.”

He actually did open the door for Steve, though, as they entered the restaurant, and he smirked happily. “Thank you.”

There were certainly no white tablecloths here—it was a beachside pizza place that, miraculously, they both liked. Well, Steve liked it, while Danny grudgingly admitted that it was passable, for Hawaii, at least. To no surprise, Steve ordered the Hawaiian pizza, deftly ignoring Danny’s eye roll. When it arrived, Danny couldn’t stop his grimace.

“Come on, Danno,” Steve said, frowning. “Have you ever even _tried_ it? Here.”

Danny looked down with suspicion at the dumb, pineapple-covered piece of pizza now sitting on his place. “I think they’ll revoke my Jersey citizenship if I eat this.”

“Well, first of all, that’s not really a thing. And I won’t tell anyone, I promise.”

“Fine,” he said with a sigh. “Relationships are about compromise, right?”

“Exactly,” Steve said, his grin blinding. “You should remember that.”

“Don’t look so excited—it goes both ways, partner,” he said, pointing.

“C’mon now, stop stalling,” Steve said as he gestured toward Danny’s plate. “Let’s go.”

Danny took a deep breath and picked up the pizza, bringing it up to his mouth. He pinched his nose closed for a second, just to make Steve laugh, then took a big bite and chewed thoughtfully. The expectant look on Steve’s face was almost comical, and Danny made him wait through two more bites before he spoke. “Okay, I’m man enough to admit that it’s not terrible. But it’s still not _pizza_ and therefore I will not be ordering it.”

“A-ha! You like it,” Steve said smugly, and Danny sputtered.

“Excuse me? Did you not hear me? I said it wasn’t terrible,” he said. He was trying to keep a straight face, but it wasn’t easy with Steve over there grinning like a little kid.

“Yeah, but in your words, that means you really liked it. And I don’t mind if you don’t order it, you can always take one of my slices.”

“Hey, hey, what’s this, what’re you doing?” Danny said, slapping ineffectually at Steve’s hand over on his side of the table.

“I gave you one of my pieces, so now I’m taking one of yours. It’s fair,” Steve said as he took a huge bite of the pepperoni slice.

“Yeah, but I didn’t _ask_ for your piece, you just forced it on me. So that automatically nullifies the unspoken food-sharing agreement.”

“Sorry,” he said, grinning through a mouthful.

Danny smiled in spite of himself. “You’re such a dork.”

“I’m _charming_ ,” he corrected, and Danny snorted.

“Not nearly as much as you think you are, babe,” he lied smoothly.

They ate in companionable silence for a minute before Steve looked up at him from under those ridiculous eyelashes. “So what’s the verdict?” he asked, a little shyly. “Less weird, yeah?”

Danny took a long drag from his beer. “Definitely less weird. There’s this tension, though, about whether I’m supposed to act like I do when I’m on a date with a girl or like I do when I’m with you. But that’s not bad, it’s just...different.”

“Well, I know how you act around me—so how do you act when you’re on a date?”

“Nicer, probably,” Danny said with a smirk.

“Oh, so you mean you wouldn’t call her an asshole, like you did to me this morning?” Steve said, tilting his head and looking down his nose at Danny.

“You threw away the newspaper before I finished the crossword! It was completely warranted!” he said, gesturing widely and nearly knocking a waiter who was passing by. He winced and then lowered his voice. “I don’t think you’re an asshole, though.”

“Look at that, you _can_ be nice.”

“I’ll try,” he admitted.

“Are you worried about what people will think?” Steve asked.

“What, about us being together?”

“Yeah,” he said, nodding.

“Well, you’re definitely the hottest person I’ve ever dated, regardless of gender,” Danny said, because hey, he might as well lay the cards on the table, “so no, I’m not too worried about how I’m going to come across.”

Steve laughed and rolled his eyes. “Are you kidding, come on.”

“Oh, I’m totally serious,” Danny said, wiping his mouth. “I look like a stud, everyone will just think I’m rich or that I have a big dick or something. The rich part isn’t true, though, you know how much I make,” he added, smirking when Steve coughed around his sip of beer.

Steve opened his mouth to respond, but the waiter appeared and dropped the check on the table between them. Danny grabbed it and dug out his wallet to lay a few bills on the table. “So I pay at the fancy places, you pay here?” Steve asked, leaning back in his chair with his arms folded across his chest. “I see how it is.”

“Exactly,” he said with a grin. “You know how much I make, remember?”

Steve shook his head, chucking. “C’mon, let’s get out of here.”

The nerves ratcheted up as he drove them back to Steve’s, so he fell back on his default rambling mode and was just finishing up a story about a Jersey mob case when he pulled into the driveway and shifted into park. “And I’m telling you, that was the last—mmph.”

The kiss was chaste but firm, certainly no ambiguity in what it meant, though due to the surprise, Danny barely got to enjoy it for a second before it was over. He swallowed as he sat back, unsure whether he was grateful that they avoided those tense, loaded seconds that precede a first kiss or wistful. Typical Steve, jumping before anyone else was ready.

Even as he stared into Steve’s eyes—here in the dark, they looked blue—and licked his lips, he couldn’t help himself. “The car? Really? Not so smooth, babe.”

“Shut up,” Steve said softly, even fonder than usual, and one corner of his mouth quirked up as he slid his hand to the back of Danny’s neck and pulled him back in.

Danny went willingly, more mentally prepared this time and ready to enjoy the hell out of this one. His eyes fell shut at the first touch of Steve’s lips, which were softer than he had anticipated. It was lazy at first, just testing different angles and pressure as their lips came together again and again. After a minute he could feel Steve’s mouth relax slightly, dropping open, and Danny followed suit. He took the initiative this time, nudging his tongue gently against Steve’s, and swallowed a gasp when the gesture was reciprocated. It was weird if he thought about it—he was kissing _Steve_ , holy shit what—but other than that, it was pretty fucking awesome.

Danny braced one hand on Steve’s thigh, just above his knee, and slid the other through his hair, gripping gently to change their angle. Steve’s breath hitched a little bit when Danny tugged at his lower lip with his teeth, just a contented little hum pulled from the back of his throat, and he instantly wondered how he could induce that noise again and what other sounds he could pull out of him if he really tried. Man, he hadn’t been so wound up from a kiss in a long time—his pants were getting tighter than was strictly comfortable.

The thoughts were starting to spin in his brain, though, rapid-fire. God, they had to be careful. It would be way too easy to stumble inside, up the stairs, into Steve’s bedroom…yeah, he couldn’t quite go down that road yet, even in his head. They both needed to be sure of this, they deserved that, _Steve_ deserved that.

His dick was quite unhappy with the inference from his upstairs brain, but Danny knew that if they kept going, it would be overwhelming and he’d probably end up regretting it. So he pulled back slowly and pressed his palm to Steve’s chest, spreading his fingers wide. “Look,” he said lowly, “I know you like to just jump in, guns blazing, no matter what, but I really need to take this slow.”

“Hey, that’s what I want, too,” Steve said, his eyes softer in the dim light.

“I mean, it’s great,” he said, punctuating his point with another quick kiss, “but it’s—it’s a lot of change at once, you know?”

“Yeah, I’m a little out of my depth here,” he admitted, and Danny laughed at the rare show of humility.

“Don’t have your sea legs yet, McGarrett?” he said with a grin, which only widened when Steve chuckled.

“I’m getting there,” he said lowly, leaning forward to capture Danny’s lips again. Danny pressed into it for only a moment, then pulled back to lean their foreheads together.

“I think I need to go freak out a little bit, and it’s probably best if I do that alone,” he said, wincing a bit at the admission. He relaxed somewhat, though, when Steve just smiled.

“Okay.”

“You seem remarkably calm. About all this.”

“I’m adaptable,” he said, shrugging.

“You’re adaptable, he says, okay,” Danny said, with a little laugh. “Well, take your adaptable self and get out of my car. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Steve smiled again and kissed him, just a quick press of lips, before he hopped out of the car. “Bye, Danno.”

Danny waited until Steve was inside before he backed out of the driveway and headed for home. He had just made out with a guy—his boss, his friend, _Steve_ —and he liked it. More than a little, in fact, if the tightness in his pants was any indication. He took a deep breath, trying to quell the swirls of panic in his chest. He could do this, they could do this. Everything was going to be fine, it had to be.


	4. Chapter Four

“Stop looking at me like that,” Danny hissed, so only Steve could hear. They were with Kono and Grover, getting ready to search Saxson’s apartment.

“Like what?” Steve asked at an annoyingly-normal volume. “How am I looking at you?”

“You’re _grinning_ , and it’s very suspicious. You normally don’t look so happy, please tone it down.”

“And what if I _am_ happy?”

“Again, it’s suspicious. Try to hide it a little.”

Several seconds later, Danny turned toward him again. “Okay, seriously, shut up.”

“I didn’t say anything!”

“Well, make your face shut up, then.”

“Okay, what are the two of you fighting about now?” Grover asked as he joined them, leaning over to press the button for the elevator.

“Nothing,” they said in unison, and Danny shot Steve another glare. 

“I’m not even gonna pretend to understand,” he said.

“That strategy has worked pretty well for me for the last six years,” Kono said, and Danny groaned inwardly. He really did not want to get into a discussion about him and Steve right now.

“Have they really been like this for six years?”

Danny made his groan heard this time. “Could we, you know, not?”

“What, you don’t like talking about our relationship, Danno?” Steve asked, tilting his head. He was going to kill him, seriously.

“And to answer your question, yes,” Kono chimed in, turning to Grover. “It was actually worse in the beginning because they actually didn’t like each other. Now it’s just a front.”

“Not all the time,” Danny said under his breath, and he yelped when Steve elbowed him in the side. “Such violence, jeez.”

“You started it.”

“What, six years ago? Are you not over that?”

Grover sighed and rubbed his forehead. “What happened?”

“Do you not know the story of how they met?” Kono said with a grin. She took way too much delight in telling that story.

“Oh, please enlighten me. I’m assuming it was violent.”

“It was an old-fashioned stand-off in Steve’s garage.”

“He was an intruder in my crime scene!” Danny protested.

“And it was my dad’s garage! I had a right to be there.”

“You tried to walk off with evidence, I threatened to put you in an ambulance, and then you literally called the governor in front of me to get sworn in just so you could take it with you.”

“Whoa. Then why did you guys decide to be partners?” Grover asked, wrinkling his nose, and Danny hooted.

“Oh, that’s cute, you think I had a choice! Oh no, mister lacking-social-skills over here came to my house and _drafted_ me, told me that he had jurisdiction and was making me his partner.”

“I _also_ said that we would get along great, which we do.”

“But on the first day they worked together, Danny punched him,” Kono added.

“Wait, really?” Grover asked, swiveling his gaze between them. 

“Yep,” Steve said. He was grinning, that bastard. “It was a good punch, too.”

“Of course it was,” Danny said with a huff. “And you totally deserved it, you were being an ass.”

Steve didn’t say anything, which for him was as close to an admission of guilt as Danny could hope for. “You could be a bit of ass back then,” Kono pitched in helpfully. “Sorry, boss.”

“And don’t forget about the whole getting me shot thing,” Danny said, and Steve scoffed.

“Oh, I’m confident you’ll never let me, don’t worry. Anyway, it was just a—”

“So help me, if you say it was just a _scratch_ , I swear to god—” The elevator dinged, cutting off the end of Danny’s threat, and he sighed. “Well, this trip down memory lane has been so fun, truly. Maybe now we can get back to our jobs?” he asked, gesturing to Saxson’s apartment door, which they were now standing in front of.

Steve stepped up with the key they’d been given by the building staff, bumping Danny out of the way with his hip. He winked at him as he unlocked the door, and Danny bit his lip to keep from smiling.

“Whoa,” Danny said. He whistled through his teeth as they stepped into the apartment—it was spacious, modern, and industrial, clearly expensive. “Maybe I should have been a chef.”

“Seriously,” Kono said, running her hand over the marble countertops. “Look at that view.” 

“Okay,” Steve said, all business now. “Let’s see if we find anything suspicious, anything that might suggest trouble or that Saxson was falling into a bad crowd. Make sure we grab any electronics. Danny and I’ll start in the bedroom.”

Danny found Saxson’s bedroom, which was stylishly appointed and fairly neat. He peered into his walk-in closet and started to feel along the wall. “Good call,” Steve said as he came up behind him, crowding a little close. “If I had a safe, this is where I’d put it.”

“Don’t you get any ideas,” Danny said, spinning around and lifting his hands. “We are at work.”

Steve rolled his eyes. “I’m not going to do anything,” he said, but the way he was moving toward Danny with that look in his eye suggested differently. 

“Plus, we are literally in a closet right now. Isn’t that a little too on the nose?”

Steve smirked and turned away. “I don’t see anything in here.”

They looked around in silence for several minutes, trying to find anything that might give them a clue about what Saxson had been wrapped up in. Danny got down on his hands and knees to peer underneath the bed, but there was nothing except dust bunnies and what looked like…a pair of black lacy underwear, he realized as he moved closer. He used a pen to grab them and lifted his hand for Steve to see. “These look a little small to be Saxson’s,” he said, and Steve chuckled.

“There’s a half-empty box of tampons in the medicine cabinet, so those probably belong to a girlfriend.”

“Or maybe he just has a lot of one-night-stands and likes to be, you know, charitable.”

“What, with complimentary toiletries?” Steve asked, as he rifled through his nightstand drawer.

“Yeah, like a hotel. Who knows, maybe we’ll find a whole stash of those little shampoo bottles.”

“Oh, is that what you do with your one-night-stands? Like to make them feel at home?”

“Well, not _anymore_ ,” he said, with an overwrought sigh, and Steve laughed.

* * *

“You wanna come in for a beer?” Steve asked as he pulled into his driveway. They’d made frustratingly little progress with the case over the past few days, and he wanted to relax.

Danny paused for a second, his head tilted. “Yeah,” he said, with a little shake. “Yeah, let’s do that.”

“I mean, we don’t—,” Steve said, hesitating with his hand on the door latch.

“No, no, I want to,” he said as he got out of the car and slammed the door behind him. “I was just thinking about the dozens of times that one of us has said that, and how now it means something different.”

Steve quirked a grin. “Well, not really.” He let them into the house, grabbed two beers from the fridge, and joined Danny in their usual two chairs out back. “See,” he said, sweeping his arm to encompass the view. “S’exactly the same.”

Danny let out a little laugh and took a sip of his beer. “Okay.”

Steve knew he should have been worried when Danny said he was leaving the other night to go freak out, but he wasn’t. Nor was he worried by the fact that they hadn’t really discussed the elephant in the room in the past few days. They’d had a good time on their date, the second one, at least, and Danny definitely enjoyed the their little kiss in the car—the way he’d twisted his fingers in Steve’s shirt and let out that delightful little groan was all the proof Steve needed. He just needed to process emotions in his own way, and Steve wanted to give him the space to do that. Lord knows Danny had done the same for him often enough, even if for him, _space_ meant off-topic rambling and rants that Steve would never admit could be comforting.

“See, here’s the thing,” Danny started, startling Steve out of his thoughts. “I know I keep using this word, but this whole thing isn’t weird, and that’s what’s freaking me out. I mean, yes, in the broad sense, the prospect of having sex with a guy _is_ weird and just to go off on a tangent, is something that I haven’t quite wrapped my mind around yet, though I think I’m getting there. But it’s not strange that it’s _you_.”

Steve unraveled Danny’s words in his head, trying to follow his train of thought. “So it’s bothering you that it’s not weird?”

“Exactly,” Danny said, snapping his fingers.

“Why?”

“Why is it not weird, or why is it bothering me?”

Steve paused. “The second one. I think.”

“I don’t know!” he said twisting in his chair to face Steve. “I feel dumb. Should we have been doing this all along or something? Have I been bisexual my _whole_ life and never known it? How is that possible? It’s like my whole worldview has flipped. And you know how much I hate change,” he said with a huff, and Steve laughed.

“Okay, well, first of all, I don’t think we should have been doing this all along. I mean—no. If I had tried to kiss you five years ago, what would you have done?”

“I mean, I wouldn’t have _punched_ you or anything,” Danny said, pausing to take another swig of his beer. “I’m not that big of a dick, but I most definitely would not have been receptive.”

“Ditto. And I’m sure you haven’t been bisexual your whole life, that seems unlikely. Are you attracted to other guys?”

“I don’t think so. So, there are things I want to do to you, and then I think about doing those things with, say, Chin, and I just—”

Steve winced immediately. “Aw, man, no.”

“Exactly! I mean, again, happy to admit that he’s a very attractive man. But just…no. It’s apparently just you, you dumb lug,” he said with a sigh.

“What kind of things do you imagine doing to me?” Steve said, wiggling his eyebrows playfully, and Danny groaned.

“Shut up.”

“You say that a lot to me, you know.”

“Yeah, well, you say a lot of dumb shit.”

Steve laughed and swallowed the rest of his beer. He had never really minded Danny’s jibes, especially when they were accompanied by that fond smile.

“But how does that even happen?” Danny asked, leaning forward to brace his forearms on his knees. “I mean, your sexual preference changing, just like that.”

He snapped his fingers, and Steve shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell you, man. It’s weird.”

“Plus, you,” Danny stutters, gesturing up and down at Steve, “you just seem so completely _unfazed_ by this. And that is also a little unnerving.”

Steve heaved a breath and fiddled with the label on his beer bottle. “I mean, yes, this is strange, and no, this does not match up with who I’ve been for the last 39 years, you know, orientation-wise. But when we were at that bar…it was like a light switch just flipped, or something. You’re my favorite person, Danny, and I would rather spend time with you than anyone, even a girl I wanted to date. That’s not how it’s supposed to be. And then I was thinking about how great it would be if we had _everything_ , and then I couldn’t stop thinking about it. And now here we are.”

“Wow, I’m not used to hearing so many words from you at one time,” he said, and Steve laughed.

“I mean, it might not work,” he said honestly, shrugging. “Maybe you’ll never be able to wrap your mind around having sex with a guy, maybe it’ll screw us up at work. But man…it seems dumb not to try, at least. And I think our friendship can handle it—I hope so, anyway.”

Danny stared out at the ocean for a long moment, and Steve sat back in his chair, a little uncomfortable with all that he’d revealed.

“I’m gonna go get a refill,” he said eventually, standing up and grabbing Danny’s empty bottle out of his hand. He went back inside to grab two more beers, but when he closed the fridge and turned around, Danny had snuck up on him and was standing right there.

“I’m sorry,” he said, quieter than Steve’s used to. “You know, that it’s taking me a while to adjust to this.”

Shaking his head, Steve set the bottles on the counter and settled his hands on Danny’s hips. “ _Don’t_ apologize,” he said heatedly, but whatever other words he wanted to say were swallowed up by Danny’s lips on his.

This one was nowhere near lazy like the one in the car—right off the bat, it was heated and slick and a little messy, and Steve couldn’t get enough. He used his grip to pull Danny closer, twisting them so that he was braced against the kitchen counter. One hand slid up into Danny’s hair while the other moved from his hip to his ass, and he smiled into the kiss when Danny squeezed him tighter.

Danny finally pushed him back—Steve stumbled a little, that wasn’t great for his image—and rotated his neck. “I’m no stranger to kissing someone taller than me, you know, comfortable with my masculinity, yadda yadda, but whoa. Ow.”

“That’s funny because you’re actually _shorter_ than most of—”

“Finish that sentence and there will be no more kissing,” Danny threatened, pushing his finger into Steve’s chest. Grinning, Steve lifted his hand to rub at the back of Danny’s neck, and after only a second, Danny let out a fairly indecent groan and hung his head. “I’m just saying that maybe we need to move this somewhere a little more comfortable.”

“Oh, that’s a very nice line,” Steve said, lifting one corner of his mouth in a smirk. “Should we be calling you Smooth Dog instead?”

“It works on all the girls,” Danny said dryly, and Steve laughed as he dipped his head down to kiss him again.

He didn’t think they were quite ready for the bedroom, so he steered them in the direction of the couch instead. He pulled Danny down on top of him, and holy shit, he could feel the hard line of Danny’s dick through their pants. “Horizontal is much better,” he gasped. “You have great ideas.”

“Finally, he admits it,” Danny said, gesturing with the hand that he wasn’t using to brace himself with, and Steve couldn’t do anything except kiss that smiling mouth. Danny’s kisses were teasing and playful, and Steve grunted in frustration, pulling him down closer. Danny might be short, but he was _solid_ and a heavy weight on top of Steve. This was starting out remarkably similar to his little fantasy the other day—which he had been refining, in his spare time—and the thought made him squirm.

Steve wormed a hand in between them to start working at Danny’s buttons, and he sat up after a minute, planting his ass square on top of Steve’s groin and grinning when he groaned. He pulled his shirt off his arms, and Steve blew out a breath slowly through his nose. He’d seen Danny shirtless, obviously, but not since this thing had started and not since he had the opportunity to touch. Steve wriggled to get his own shirt off, then wrapped his arm around Danny’s neck and tugged him back down.

Steve moved his hips, just a little, and he smiled against Danny’s lips when he pushed back with a little grunt that Steve found cuter than he probably should. He felt a bit like a teenager, basically dry-humping someone on a couch, but he supposed that was appropriate, considering the extent of his experience.

After a minute, when Steve felt like they were approaching the point of no return, he swallowed and used the last vestiges of his willpower to push Danny up and off of him a bit. “Are you sure, we don’t have to—”

Without missing a beat, Danny tilted his head and kissed down Steve’s neck. “This is what I meant by you saying dumb shit,” he said, his voice muffled, and Steve chuckled.

“So that’s a yes, then?”

Danny didn’t say anything in response, but the truly toe-curling kiss that he planted on Steve’s lips was answer enough, he figured. So he wrapped his leg around Danny’s calf to get more leverage and thrust up harder, locking him in place against his chest. Their rhythm was dirty and a little stuttered, but considering that it took a lot less time than Steve wanted for him to get close to orgasm, it was certainly working.

Danny surprised him, though, by coming first, ripping away from Steve’s mouth to groan low and long into his neck as his hips twitched. Just the feel of the shiver wracking Danny’s body sent Steve over the edge, and he bit lightly at the junction of Danny’s neck and shoulder in an attempt to muffle his moan.

Danny braced his forehead against Steve’s shoulder and after a couple minutes of silence, heaved a sigh. “I feel like a 16-year-old,” he said finally. “And my pants are gross now, which is all your fault.”

“You can stay, if you want,” Steve said quietly, and Danny huffed a laugh.

“I should probably go.”

“Are you freaking out?” he asked. He knew that he didn’t push Danny into anything that he didn’t want, but he still hoped that it wasn’t too overwhelming.

Danny pushed himself up on his arms so Steve could see his face and then shook his head. “No, I’m not, I promise. I just—I know if I stay, I’m gonna want to do more. And to _keep_ myself from freaking out, I need to, you know, ease into this.”

“You’re right,” Steve said, kissing him soundly on the mouth. “So get out.”

“Oh, you’re letting me leave voluntarily? No shackling me to the bed or anything?” Danny said, his smile soft, teasing as he slid his thumb down Steve’s jaw line. “Little surprised, not gonna lie.”

“Well, not this time, at least.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Happy Valentine's Day from these two goofs!](http://ibysaurus.tumblr.com/post/45072596121/lilmeganannie-ocaan-promo-requested-by)


	5. Chapter Five

“Do you feel better now?” Danny said, gasping as he wiped the sweat from his forehead.

“Yeah,” Steve said, lying flat on his back and breathing hard himself. He pushed himself up onto his elbows and stretched luxuriously. “Yeah, that was exactly what I needed. You were right.”

“I’m always right,” he said. He smacked Steve lightly on the chest, but he used his quick reflexes to grab his hand and hold it there.

“Fine, fine, I won’t deny it. You were right this time, at least.”

Danny stretched one more time and climbed to his feet. “I didn’t have much of a choice, though. The rest of our team threatened to kill me if I didn’t calm you down, you wouldn’t stop snapping at everyone this morning.”

“Did you tell them what we were doing?” Steve said with a laugh.

“Yeah, of course,” Danny said, sweeping an arm to encompass the lush, green scenery. “Nothing calms you down more than a swift run up a mountain.”

“I still can’t believe you came with me. Normally just the mere mention of hiking induces a rant.”

“Yeah, well, it seems that over the years, I’ve come to enjoy your company. I should probably have my head examined or something, maybe it’s Stockholm syndrome,” he said with a shrug, holding out his hand. “Come on, we should get back.”

Steve allowed Danny to haul him up, and then rummaged through his small backpack and unearthed the water bottle. He handed it to Danny, who took a long swig and gave it back. As soon as Steve was done with his own drink, Danny leaned up on his toes and kissed him, swallowing his gasp of surprise. Steve’s lips were cool from the water, in strict contrast to the heat of his mouth, and Danny lapped it up greedily. Deepening the kiss, he snuck the fingers of his free hand under Steve’s shirt. His abs were damp and tacky with sweat, and Danny had the sudden urge to find out what they tasted like.

But as soon as he started to lift the hem of his shirt, Steve pulled back and put a little space in between them. “We should get back, like you said. You’re always right, remember?”

Danny scowled and tried to smooth his hair. Steve took another long drag of water before squirting some over his head and then Danny’s.

“Down, boy,” he said, laughing as Danny sputtered.

“You’re such an ass,” he muttered.

“That actually feels really good,” Steve said, squirting himself again, and Danny refused to admit the same.

“You better dry off before we get back in my car.”

“Yes, Danno,” he said. He picked up Danny’s hand, and they started making their way down, much slower than they’d run up. “This counts as a date, by the way.”

“Oh, it does, now?” Danny asked, laughing, and Steve nodded.

“Sure does.”

“It would count _more_ if you didn’t make me stop back there,” Danny said mulishly, and Steve grinned, gripping his hand tighter.

“Tell you what, then, you can pick the next date.”

“How about dinner at my place?”

“Like takeout?” Steve asked. He didn’t look impressed. “Sure, okay.”

“I was going to _make_ dinner, you goof,” Danny said, bumping their shoulders together. “Is that not exciting enough for you?”

“Oh!” he exclaimed. “Yeah, that’s great. Hell, we’ll probably be able to do it tonight, considering how slow this case is going.”

“Aw, man,” Danny said, groaning. “You just totally jinxed it, goddamn it, Steve. You suck.”

* * *

“You look better, boss,” Kono said, nodding approvingly as they all gathered around the computer table late that afternoon.

Danny smirked and took a little bow. “You’re welcome, everyone.”

Everyone laughed, even Steve after he shot Danny a little glare. “Yeah. I’m sorry, guys.”

“I think what he’s trying to say,” Danny broke in, “is that even after six years as a bona fide cop, Mr. SEAL here has a tendency to get snappy and impatient when cases depend on a lot of old-fashioned police work instead of explosions and/or violence.”

“You itching to shoot something?” Chin said gravely, and Steve huffed a laugh.

“Just get antsy, I guess, when things are slow.”

“Well, if it’ll make you feel better, we heard from Fong while you were gone,” Kono said, and Steve turned toward her eagerly.

“Yes, please. What’d he say?”

“No blood on the knives. And they only found two prints that didn’t match all the ones we got from the staff.”

“Wow,” Grover said, raising his eyebrows. “In a busy kitchen, only two prints we couldn’t account for? That’s pretty impressive.”

“Yeah, apparently they do a heavy-duty deep clean every night.”

“Any matches in the system?” Danny asked, and she shook her head.

“Nope, nothing.”

“So they’re not Temple’s,” Steve said with a sigh. “Have we ruled out all the staff?”

“Yeah, they all have alibis that checked out,” Grover said. “Most of them were just home, asleep, though.”

“I’ve got one more thing, too,” Chin said. “You guys said Saxson might’ve had a girlfriend, yeah?”

“Right,” Steve said, crossing his arms. “The underwear we found in his apartment.”

“Well, we were able to get access to his phone records, and I found that he’d been texting someone pretty frequently. Here are some examples.”

A bunch of texts appeared on the screen, and it was silent for a minute as they all took them in. Danny’s eyebrows shot up at the first reference to somebody’s “huge, throbbing cock,” and he quickly averted his eyes.

“Whoa,” Kono said, and Steve grunted his agreement.

“She was listed in in his phone as just ‘J,’” Chin said.

“Are we sure it’s a girl?” Danny asked, and he nodded.

“Yeah, there were some photos, too.”

“Did we run facial rec?” Steve asked, but Chin shook his head, with a little smile.

“Oh, they’re not of her face,” he said, and they all groaned. “It’s definitely a girl, though. For sure.”

“Okay, so we know that this ‘J’ person is pretty proficient with the, uh, the sexting,” Danny said, fighting a blush and trying not to look at the screen. He was no prude, but holy hell those texts were dirty, and he’d rather not think about sex while in the presence of his coworkers. Well, except Steve, apparently. “Can we trace the number?”

“It’s a burner,” Chin said with a sigh.

“Could we, you know,” Grover said, waving at the screen. “I feel like I’m cheating on my wife just reading those.”

“Oh, yeah, sorry,” Chin said, and the texts soon disappeared off the screen. “Anyway, I found the place where it was purchased, and they’re supposed to send us their records tomorrow. Hopefully she was the one who bought it, and hopefully she did it with a credit card.”

“The general manager didn’t say that he was dating anyone, right?” Kono asked.

“Leslie said he wasn’t, not that she knew of,” Steve said. “Did it come up in any of your interviews with the staff?”

Grover shook his head. “Nope.”

“I mean, it must be something on the down low,” Danny said, gesturing, “if they were using a damn burner phone.”

“Could it be Leslie?” Steve asked. “They were business partners, and she’s married. That’s enough of a scandal right there.”

“I, for one, would rather not ask her to disrobe so we can compare to the pictures that we have,” Chin said dryly, and they all laughed.

“Uh, good point.”

“Hopefully we’ll get lucky tomorrow with a credit card.”

Their conversations soon delved off-topic, and Kono was asking about Grace’s latest softball game when Danny’s phone buzzed in his pocket. He checked it and frowned—a text from Steve.

_Hopefully I’ll be the one getting lucky tonight._

He shook his head with a huff and looked up, but Steve was engrossed in a conversation with Grover. He had to wait until he could corner Steve in his office about 15 minutes later. “What the hell was that, huh?” Danny said as he made sure the door was closed.

“What?” Steve said, trying and failing to hide his grin. “I was, you know, inspired.”

“Well, first of all, this _pales_ in comparison to our little friend ‘J’, so maybe you need some lessons. Actually no, wait, I take that back,” he said, waving his arms. “I’m starting over. See, look what you’ve done. Now anyone who looks at our phone records will know that we’re together.”

“Yeah, but you haven’t sent me any—”

“Don’t you say dick pic, don’t you dare,” Danny said, but he figured his smile was belying his threatening tone of voice.

“I’m definitely gonna send you dick pics. For sure,” Steve said smugly, swinging his legs up onto his desk and crossing his arms.

“Oh, no you’re not. I’ll just sell ‘em on the internet if you do. Make that my side job, it’d be nice to pick up some extra cash.”

“How would you know what they’re worth? You haven’t even, ya know,” Steve said, waving his hand in the general vicinity of his crotch.

“I didn’t say I’d sell them for a _lot_ ,” he said, and Steve gasped.

“Now he’s offended.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Danny said, rolling his eyes. “I’m leaving, I gotta go to the store. Come over around seven?”

“Sure,” he said with that goofy grin. “I’ll see you then.”

* * *

Danny felt so strange while he was standing in his kitchen, cooking dinner, and disturbingly, it took him several minutes to realize that what he was feeling was _happiness_. The worries that were usually forefront in his mind—Charlie, Rachel, Grace, even Matty, still—had faded into a dull background for the moment, and he wasn’t oblivious enough _or_ stubborn enough to deny Steve’s involvement in his mental state. Miraculously, he was pretty relaxed about that whole thing, too—apparently all it took was one mutual orgasm to ease his anxiety. Sure, it wasn’t like he was totally ready to go full-steam ahead, but he was getting there. And tonight, whether Steve knew it or not, he was spending the night, and Danny would really like to at least take his pants off this time.

There was a knock at the door, right at seven, and Danny wiped his hands on a towel before he went to answer it. Steve was holding a six-pack, and he looked so deliciously casual in his shorts and tight t-shirt that Danny swallowed hard.

“Hey. I woulda brought wine, but I’m—”

The damn guy wouldn’t stop talking, so Danny kissed him anyway, fisting a hand in his shirt and tugging him down to a more appropriate human height. It was warm and slick, and Danny kinda wanted to forget about dinner.

“—really more of a beer guy,” Steve finished, with a broad smile. “Hello.”

“Hi,” Danny said, closing the door behind him and heading back into the kitchen.

“You’re not wearing an apron. Not gonna lie, a little disappointed.”

Danny snapped him on the thigh with the end of a dishtowel and smirked when he yelped. “Be careful. If you insult the cook, you don’t get dinner.”

“Got it. It really does smell great in here, whatcha making?”

“Lasagna,” Danny said as he finished layering the cheese on top of the casserole dish.

“You were on the phone with your mom earlier, weren’t you?” Steve asked, and Danny scoffed.

“No, in fact, I was not. This is her recipe, obviously, but I do know how to cook.”

“You know I’m a sure thing, right? You really don’t have to go to all this trouble,” Steve said. Though his words were light, it didn’t sound like he was really joking, and Danny turned to face him. The withering look he was going for must have worked because Steve straightened up under his gaze and visibly swallowed.

“And what if I want to, huh?” Danny asked, crossing his arms. Steve opened his mouth but then closed it again without saying anything, and Danny let him struggle through it.

“Okay,” he said finally, nodding.

“Okay?”

“Yeah,” Steve said, tugging him closer. “Okay. I accept your—affection.”

“Oh, really? How nice of you.”

“Thank you,” he said lowly, and Danny couldn’t _not_ kiss him when he had that soft, earnest look on his face. It’s a miracle he’d been able to survive the past several years, honestly, though he supposed he didn’t know what he was missing. He certainly did now.

“Don’t you _dare_ lift me onto this counter,” Danny said, but he could feel Steve grin against his lips—the guy loved nothing more than a challenge, goddamn it. His hands slid slowly down Danny’s back, pausing to give his ass a healthy squeeze, and gripped the back of his thighs to haul him up.

“Whoops, hands must’ve slipped,” he murmured, and Danny smacked him on the arm.

“What did I _just_ say, you Neanderthal?” he asked, exasperated, but with the way that he was hooking his ankles around Steve’s thighs and pulling him closer, he was probably sending mixed messages.

Danny wouldn’t admit to liking the means, but he certainly enjoyed the end result—kissing Steve was much easier when their heads were level. Especially when Steve could brace his hands on the counter and lean into him fully, his body a hard, hot weight against Danny’s. He pulled back after a minute, though, and pushed at Steve’s chest to put a little space in between them. “If you want dinner anytime soon, stop distracting me.” He hopped down and slid the dish into the oven.

“How long does that take?” Steve asked.

“About 15 minutes probably,” Danny said as he set the timer on the microwave. “The cheese just has to melt.”

As soon as he was done, Steve grabbed his hand to drag him in the direction of the living room, and Danny didn’t even try to hide his smile—he’d always had a special fondness for the beginning of relationships, when you could barely keep your hands off each other for more than three minutes.

He pulled Steve down on top of him this time, and Danny shifted a little, not uncomfortably, under his weight. “You should stay. Tonight, I mean,” he said, and Steve grinned.

“Yeah?”

Danny nodded, reaching up to get a grip on his hair, but he barely got his tongue in Steve’s mouth before he was lifting his head.

“Wait, wait, wait. Who’s gonna be the little spoon?” Steve said, completely serious, and Danny couldn’t hold back his laughter.

“Seriously?” he said. Gesturing was difficult under Steve’s weight, damn it. “That’s what you’re worried about right now? What, have you never been little spoon before?”

“Eh,” Steve said, with a shrug. “Not really.”

“It’s nice. And my shoulders are just as broad as yours, buddy.”

“I suppose we’ll figure it out,” he said, and Danny huffed a laugh.

“Yeah, I think we can handle it. Now stop talking.”

“What, do you have better thi—”

Danny leaned up and captured his mouth, wrapping his arm around Steve’s neck and coaxing him into a kiss that was lush and wet. “I’m saving you from your terrible lines,” he mumbled, and Steve smiled.

Their shirts came off somewhere, somehow—Danny didn’t really remember, nor did he care to as he busied himself by stroking up and down the surprisingly smooth expanse of Steve’s back. The crisp chest hair against his nipples was new, still, and interesting, and not as off-putting as he feared it might be.

He slipped his hand under the waistband of Steve’s shorts onto his ass, and then froze. “Wow, you really did think you were gonna get lucky tonight, didn’t you?”

“I don’t think you have to use past tense anymore,” Steve said, seamlessly shifting his kisses to Danny’s neck. The skin of his ass was hot under Danny’s hand, and he gripped it hard as Steve’s tongue found a particularly sensitive spot under his ear.

“Fuck,” he hissed. He thrust up, involuntarily, and Steve exhaled shakily, the hot breath against Danny’s neck making him shiver.

Steve was braced up on one elbow, to give their hips a little more room to move, and Danny snuck a hand in between their bodies, scraping his thumb across Steve’s nipple. He gasped into his mouth and then groaned, deepening the kiss an impossible fraction more as he tugged on Danny’s hair. Sensitive nipples, okay, Danny could work with that.

A beeping noise permeated the haze of Danny’s brain then, and it took him a long moment to realize that it was the timer for the lasagna. “Shit, that’s dinner.”

“You telling me that you want to stop for dinner now?” Steve asked, breathing hard.

“Fuck no,” he said as he struggled to get out from under Steve’s weight and stand up. “But I _am_ going to take it out of the oven so the house doesn’t burn down.”

Danny stumbled into the kitchen, legs a little shaky, and managed to safely remove the lasagna from the oven without burning himself or dropping anything. Steve was nowhere to be found when he wandered back into the living room, and he took a fortifying deep breath as he made his way back toward the bedroom.

“Oh, Jesus Christ,” he said, leaning against the doorjamb as he took in the sight of Steve stretched out on his bed, bare-ass naked and palming his cock. “What is this, some kind of Playgirl spread?”

“No pants allowed in the bed,” he said, pointing, but he didn’t really have anything to worry about because Danny was already unbuttoning and unzipping as he walked toward the bed. He shoved his pants and boxers off his hips just before he hit the mattress, and he twisted, trying to rid himself of the fabric and get closer to Steve at the same time.

Finally he was free enough that he could climb on top of Steve, straddling his hips and leaning down for another deep kiss. God, another dick bumping against his was strange, but he could get used to it. Plus, Steve naked was a _sight_ , and Danny was harder than he’d remembered being in a long time.

“This sucks,” he mumbled, and Steve growled.

“Excuse me? It kinda feels like you’re enjoying it, actually.”

“Oh, I’m enjoying it, in fact, I’m enjoying it _way_ too much. I’m saying this sucks because we have jobs and stuff, we can’t just stay in bed and do this all day.”

“Well, I _am_ the boss,” Steve said, flipping them again so that he was on top. “So we technically could do that.”

“I don’t think our team would appreciate that very much.”

“Are you kidding,” Steve said, between kisses. “We’d be so relaxed all the time, they’d love it.”

Steve rolled them to the side so that they were pressed together, shoulders to knees, and wrapped his big hand around both of them. “You’re bigger than me,” he said as he looked down.

Danny laughed and knocked their foreheads together lightly. “God has to distribute the gifts, I guess. You got everything else, so let me have this one thing.”

“Oh, I wasn’t complaining.”

Steve stroked them both for a minute, somewhat awkwardly, and then huffed in what sounded like frustration and flipped Danny around so that his ass was against Steve’s hips. “So now you’re just going to manhandle me whenever you want?”

“The angle was weird,” Steve said petulantly, against Danny’s shoulder. “Do you have lotion or something?”

“Yeah, in the nightstand behind you,” he said, jerking his head, and Steve’s heat disappeared from his back for a second. He came back, his hand slick with lube, and _fuck_ , that was way better, Danny couldn’t help from letting out a little gasp and arching back against him. It was beyond weird to look down and see a man’s hand on his dick, one that wasn’t his own, but it also felt really fucking good. Steve’s cock was nestled up against his ass, clearly hard, and he didn’t hate that either, not at all.

Steve’s hand was moving a little fast—no surprise there—so Danny laid a hand on his forearm, just for a second. “Slower,” he gritted out, through clenched teeth, and Steve obeyed instantly. He also added some kind of twist-squeeze thing that was torturously good, and Danny had to get himself together if this was going to last much longer at all.

“Slower, babe,” he said again, and Steve blew out a long breath against the back of his neck. “Someone getting a little impatient there?”

“I just,” he said into Danny’s hair, “I’m really close, and I’d rather come in your hand than all over your ass.”

Danny laughed and pushed his hips into Steve’s grip. “Fine, c’mon then, what are you waiting for?”

Steve exhaled in relief and sped up his hand, enough so that Danny was cursing and coming within about 30 seconds. He groaned and closed his eyes against the onslaught of sensations, breathing hard. “Fuck, Danny, that was hot,” Steve said, and Danny reached out blindly and patted him on the hip.

Once he regained enough energy to actually open his eyes, Danny flipped around and moved to Steve’s other side. He added a squirt of lube to his palm and took a deep breath before gently taking hold of Steve’s dick. It was definitely different, having a dick in his hand without feeling anything himself, but the overall mechanics were pretty similar. He had no idea how Steve usually did this, but it couldn’t be that different, right? And Danny was pretty sure he would be hearing about it if he didn’t like it.

“Faster,” he said, but Danny just smiled and slowed the pace of his hand. Steve cursed sharply and slid his hand into Danny’s hair to tug him up into a kiss.

“C’mon, please,” Steve said into the kiss, and Danny responded by loosening his grip. He’d already had his orgasm, so he was in no rush here. “Oh, fuck you.”

Danny laughed and spent the next several minutes torturing him, alternating the speed and pressure of his hand until Steve was cursing and thrusting up into his grip. Reducing Steve McGarrett to a panting, whimpering mess was even more glorious than he could have anticipated, and part of him wanted to string this out even longer. He wasn’t that mean, though, so he tightened his grip. Remembering what he found out earlier, Danny dipped his head to Steve’s nipple, laving it with his tongue and giving it a quick pull. Steve yelped, there was no other word for it, and Danny smiled against his skin.

He continued his mouth’s assault and sped up his hand, stroking Steve mercilessly until he went silent and Danny could tell he was close. Steve came with a hoarse yell, all over his own stomach and Danny’s hand, and a stray drop landed on Danny’s cheek. He swiped it off with his thumb and was tempted to taste it, but after a second, he wiped his hand on the sheet instead. Not quite ready for that.

“Oh, fuck,” Steve said, both hands covering his face. “Shit, that was good.”

“Yeah, not too bad for our first, uh, _hands-on_ experience, so to speak.”

Steve laughed and pulled Danny further on top of him, making him wince slightly at the cooling smear of come now against his stomach. “I’d say so.” Steve kissed him, much lazier than before but still hot enough that Danny’s own dick gave a lazy twitch, which he promptly ignored. Yeah right, buddy.

Steve got up after a minute, stretching luxuriously, while Danny’s eyes slid shamelessly down his body. After he disappeared into the bathroom, Danny rolled over onto his stomach and closed his eyes. “Are you one of those freaks who gets more energy after sex?” he mumbled into his pillow, but there was no answer. He could hear Steve rustling around in the kitchen, but he was so relaxed and drowsy that he couldn’t muster up much concern about it. The faint smell of lasagna got stronger, though, and he sniffed appreciatively as he sat up, his eyes widening at the sight of Steve coming through the doorway, his hands full with two plates and two beers.

“Did you just bring me dinner in bed?” Danny asked. Steve had slipped his shorts back on, so Danny rummaged through the pile of clothes on the floor for his boxers.

“Uh-huh,” Steve said, as he settled back in bed next to Danny, propped up against the headboard.

“Wow.”

“Best date ever,” he said, reaching over to clink their bottles together, and Danny chuckled.

“Just for that, I’ll let you be big spoon.”


	6. Chapter Six

Steve startled for a long second when he woke up in sheets that were softer than his own, with his head resting on a pillow that smelled different. He shifted onto his side, saw Danny, and then let his face relax into a lazy grin. Oh, right. Fuck, last night was good. Great, in fact, _both_ rounds, and Steve couldn’t remember a time when he was more satisfied with “just” a hand job. He couldn’t lie, though—when he first figured out that this could be a possibility, he wanted nothing more than to just throw caution to the wind and fuck Danny senseless. That said, he couldn’t be happier that they were taking things a little slower. He could say that it was because of Danny’s comfort, which was definitely true, but it was good for him, too. Sure, he could have rushed forward and faced everything at once, but he didn’t _have_ to. Danny was always the smarter one, after all, not that he’d ever tell him so.

And really, a healthy dose of anticipation never hurt anyone.

“I’m surprised you’re still here,” Danny mumbled, startling Steve from his thoughts, and he frowned.

“What, did you think I was just going to run off?”

Danny rolled to his back and stretched, the sheet falling down to his hips, and Steve stared. He’d never seen his hair so messy before, and it was delightful. “Well, not _figuratively_ , but yeah, literally. No ocean out the door here, though, for you to swim around in.”

“Believe it or not, I actually slept in,” Steve said, glancing at the clock on the nightstand. “It’s after seven already.”

Danny grinned. “Aw, did I tire you out?”

Steve laughed and at the same time remembered that he was actually allowed to _touch_ now, so he slid closer and draped himself along Danny’s side, burying his face in his neck. “So where did we land on the whole abandoning our jobs to just stay in bed idea?”

“Well, today’s Friday, at least,” he said, and Steve momentarily lost track of what he was saying when Danny slid a hand into his hair and scratched. “Is it bad that I hope we don’t get any new leads today, so we could actually enjoy a weekend?”

Steve groaned, mostly because Danny stilled his hand. “Don’t remind me. This case sucks.”

“Only because you haven’t gotten to shoot at anyone yet.”

“I miss my gun,” he said, pushing his head into Danny’s hand.

“You’re such a goof,” he said fondly. “Well, a very scary, armed goof. C’mon, don’t make me shower alone.”

Later, as they were getting dressed, Steve winced as he slipped on yesterday’s shirt. “Now I don’t have time to go home and get new clothes.”

“I’m sorry, are you complaining?” Danny asked, arching one eyebrow.

Steve grinned sunnily as he remembered the wet, sudsy Danny who whispered filth into his ear as they jerked each other off in the shower. He’d never been so happy to break his three-minute rule. “Nope. I’ll just wear this.”

“The same clothes you wore yesterday?” he asked skeptically. “We work with detectives, babe, in case you’ve forgotten.”

“I have a spare shirt in the office. We’ll get there a little early, it’ll be fine.”

His plan almost worked, at least until they stepped into the office and saw Kono fiddling with the computer table.

“Wow, are we doing casual Fridays now?” she said with a laugh, gesturing to Steve just in his undershirt, and he froze.

“He always ignores my _sage_ advice that it’s a terrible idea to mix hot coffee and the insane way that he drives my car,” Danny said, and Steve relaxed. “Maybe after the little spilling incident this morning, he’s finally learned his lesson.”

“I admit nothing,” he said with a huff, and Kono laughed. As soon as she headed back to her office, he shot Danny a quick wink and escaped into his office.

A couple hours later, he heard a quiet whoop of excitement from Chin’s office. He lifted his head up to investigate, and Chin was grinning at him through the glass. He knew the slow pace of this case must have been getting to everyone—he rarely saw such forthright exuberance from Chin. “We got the records from that store,” he called out. “The burner was bought with a credit card.”

“Awesome,” he yelled back. “Let us know when you have something.”

“Are you guys really so lazy that you have to just yell at each other?” Danny said from his own office.

“You’re doing it too, buddy,” Steve said, and Danny glared at him.

Chin was impressively fast at that sort of thing, and it wasn’t long at all before they gathered eagerly in the bullpen. “And Saxson’s sexting buddy is…,” Chin said, swiping a driver’s license up onto the screen, “Jane Roberts, 28.”

Danny inhaled sharply, and Grover turned toward him. “Do you recognize her?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Steve said, nodding. “That’s Temple’s girlfriend, she was there when Danny and I talked to him.”

Grover frowned. “So then Saxson was a professional rival who was also having an affair with his girlfriend? Yeah, that _really_ doesn’t look so good for Temple.”

“Where are we on his alibi that he was bar-hopping that night?” Steve asked. “Anything?”

“Nothing on his credit cards that night,” Kono said, shaking her head. “He did withdraw $300 earlier that day, so he could’ve just paid in cash. And we still have some security footage to go through.”

“Okay, let’s put that as top priority,” Steve said with a nod. “And if we don’t get anything, we’ll go show his picture at some of those bars. Danny and I are gonna go have a little chat with Jane.”

Steve perhaps drove a little too quickly to Jane’s address, at least according to Danny’s constant commentary, but he was so happy to even have a slim lead in this case that he didn’t even care. He may have even done a mini fist pump when he recognized Temple’s truck in her driveway. “Perfect, both of them are here,” he said as he threw the Camaro into park and hopped out. “C’mon, let’s go.”

“Whoa, there,” Danny said, hurrying around the front of the car and bracing a hand on Steve’s chest to stop him. ‘”Do you know _nothing_ about domestic violence? We can’t just tell a violent offender that his girlfriend has been cheating on him, that’s a recipe for disaster.”

“Oh,” Steve said, blinking. He cursed and ran a hand over his hair. “That’s a really good point, I hadn’t even thought of that.”

“Thank you.”

“So what do we do, then?”

“We gotta separate them. Tell her first, find out if Temple knows or could have figured it out. Then see if we have to tell him.”

“Okay,” he said, nodding. “Come on.”

He led them up the walkway and rapped firmly on the door. Temple opened it after a minute, frowning. “What the hell do you guys want?”

“We have some questions for Jane,” Steve said, crossing his arms over his chest, and Temple’s frown deepened.

“You don’t have a warrant, so I don’t have to let you in.”

“That’s correct, we don’t,” Danny said, nodding. “But we just want to talk.”

“Let them in, Ryan, it’s fine,” Jane said as she appeared at his side.

Steve smiled at her and allowed Danny to push past him and step inside. “Is there somewhere we can talk?” Danny asked Jane, and Steve took Temple by the elbow.

“Let’s wait out here,” Steve said to him, tugging him outside. They leaned against the porch railing, and Steve studied him, trying to gauge his reaction.

“So what’s this about? Why do you guys want to talk to Jane?” he asked, and Steve sighed.

“I can’t tell you that.”

Steve’s phone buzzed against his hip, and he dug it out of his pocket to see a text from Kono. _We got Temple on camera, several blocks from Petal, at 2:15 that morning. He didn’t do it._

Steve blew out a breath. “Your alibi checked out.”

“Of course it did, I wasn’t lying,” Temple said, twisting toward him. “Do you have any idea how much it sucks to be a felon, _after_ jail? I’ve done everything exactly right, never missed a meeting with my parole officer, but still, no one will ever take my word, and I’ll always be suspected for anything. Especially for things like this.”

Steve wasn’t sure what to say to that. It was true, of course—any person of interest with a record was immediately flagged and moved to the top of the pile—but he hadn’t really thought about it much from the other side. “What happened back then with your priors?”

“I was just a dumb kid, with even dumber friends who I mistakenly went along with,” he said with a shrug. “And I’m not saying that I didn’t deserve what I got. But I never would have hurt anyone and I served my time, so I think I should be able to live my life peacefully now.”

“I understand, and I agree with you. I’m sorry. But we do have to check out every lead.”

“I guess.”

Steve nodded, and it was quiet for a second. “Jane seems nice,” he said off-hand, jerking his head toward the house. “How long you two been together?”

“Oh, just a couple months, it’s casual. She’s great, though. She actually likes me for _me_ , not for who everyone thinks I am, you know?”

“Yeah,” Steve said, his eyes on Danny as he came out the front door. “Yeah, I get it.”

“And that’s why I really hope you guys aren’t just talking to her because she’s dating a felon.”

“We just had a couple questions for her, I promise.”

Danny jerked his head toward the car, and Steve nodded. He pushed himself off the railing and held out his hand to Temple.

“Thanks, man,” he said, looking him in the eye. “Really appreciate your help and your patience. Please give me a call if you think of anything else.”

“I will, I promise,” he said with a little smile as he shook his hand. “Good luck. I certainly wasn’t Saxson’s biggest fan, but of course I wish he hadn’t died, and I hope you guys catch whoever did it.”

“Thanks. I’ll see you around.”

“Hopefully not,” he called out, and Steve laughed. 

“You got it.”

He waved and joined Danny by the car, sliding into the front seat. “What, you two best buddies now or something?” he asked, and Steve laughed.

“I think he’s a good guy, he made some good points. And Kono texted me, they caught him on a security camera, so his alibi checks out. What happened with Jane?”

Danny sighed. “Well, she was quite embarrassed. That was not my favorite conversation, let me tell you. But according to her, she and Saxson weren’t having an affair, they were just texting. Though, just for the record, I still consider that stuff cheating,” he said, poking Steve in the shoulder.

“Yeah, me too, buddy,” he said with a chuckle. “Temple said they were casual.”

“She said the same thing. I asked her if he’d ever shown a propensity toward violence and thankfully she said no, so I think it may have been okay if we had to tell him. But still, always nice not to get involved with other people’s business if we don’t have to.”

“So you’re saying we have yet another dead end,” Steve said, sighing, and Danny groaned.

“Jane didn’t have any ideas of anyone who would want to hurt Saxson or what he might have gotten himself into, so yeah, it looks that way.”

* * *

“Well I say, since it’s Friday night, we go out for a few drinks,” Kono said, and then she turned to Steve with a smirk. “And boss pays to make up for being mean earlier this week.”

They all laughed, and Steve raised his hands in supplication. “Okay, okay, you got a deal. And I’ll even drive for anyone who wants to get a little drunk.”

Later, when they were all nestled in the back corner of the bar, Steve let himself drift away from the conversation for a moment. Man, his team was great. They really needed to do this more often, not just when Steve had to apologize for being a jerk. Maybe all of them could even go on an actual vacation sometime, even if it was just to Maui or something, kids and everything. He was in the middle of debating beach versus mountains versus rainforest when Danny’s laugh pulled him out of it, and his focus easily shifted.

Danny was a chatty, affectionate drunk, and right now his hands were waving wildly, nearly knocking over his beer as he told some Jersey story that Steve missed the beginning of. His hair was as rumpled as his shirt, which definitely had a couple more buttons undone than usual, and when combined with the flushed cheeks, Steve was having a really tough time not leaning into him. Thankfully the booth was small, so there was a plausible excuse for them to be pressed up against each other. He readjusted his arm, so it was only resting on the top of the booth, not on Danny.

Kono talked the others into a round of shots, but Steve declined, still nursing his second beer. He had to keep it together if he was going to drive them home, never mind resist the urge to get his hands all over Danny. He watched, though, as Danny threw back his shot, and he hoped the others were too drunk to pick up on the heat in his gaze. Trying to hide a relationship from a group of cops wasn’t the easiest task he’d ever undertaken.

“C’mere, babe, c’mere,” Danny said suddenly, tugging on his shirt sleeve.

“What?” he asked as he bent down and shared a commiserating eye roll with Chin.

“You’re going to take me home,” Danny said, his voice low and quiet right in Steve’s ear, “and then I’m going to suck your dick.”

Steve jerked in his seat and yelped as his knee smacked against the underside of the table. Holy shit.

“Whoa, you okay there, boss?” Kono asked, and he nodded quickly.

“Yeah, just, uh, hit my knee,” he said with a wan smile, trying to concentrate on the pain in his knee rather than the blood rushing to his dick. Steve had never in his life been more grateful for the dim light of a bar, he hoped it was enough to disguise his flushed cheeks.

He wasn’t sure how he made it through the next hour or so, it was mostly a blur until everyone started pulling out wallets and arguing about who was paying for what. Steve just rolled his eyes and handed his credit card to the waitress when she stopped by.

“Okay, who am I taking home?” he said as he stood up. Danny’s hand shot up, but he really couldn’t look him in the eye right now.

“I’m not too much out of your way, am I?” Kono asked, and he shook his head.

“Not at all, come on.”

“I can give you a ride, Chin,” Grover said.

“Mahalo, brah.”

They said their good-byes in the parking lot, and Kono ducked into the backseat of the Camaro. Steve spent the entire ride to Kono’s place praying that Danny wasn’t drunk enough to forget that they were keeping this whole thing a secret from their team. If Danny reached over and tried to feel him up, he didn’t think he could come up with an excuse good enough to fool Kono.

He was quiet, though, just gazing out the window and gnawing on his lower lip. Steve had to focus a little harder than usual to keep his attention on the road, and he drove extra-carefully to Kono’s.

“Bye, boss. Bye, other boss,” Kono said, waving as she hopped out of the car. Steve waved back and waited until she was safely inside before he reached for the gearshift again. Danny grabbed his hand, though, and kissed him—his mouth was warm, and he tasted like beer. Steve leaned into it eagerly for a minute, meeting Danny’s tongue with his own and gripping his hand harder, before he realized that they were still in front of Kono’s house and that the Camaro’s windows weren’t _that_ tinted.

He pulled back with a laugh and pushed Danny away gently. “Let’s just go home, babe.”

Danny smiled, though his hand stayed firmly in place on Steve’s thigh, and it was nearly a miracle that he got them home in one piece. Danny jumped on him again as soon as they were inside, and Steve smiled into the kiss.

“Babe,” he said, gently dislodging Danny from his face. “Why don’t you go upstairs and wash up? I’ll be up in a minute, okay?”

He wasn’t sure what it indicated about Danny’s degree of drunkenness, but he turned around immediately and headed straight up the stairs. Steve took his time downstairs, checking the doors and downing a glass of water before heading up, hoping that Danny would be passed out cold by the time he got there.

Steve gulped when he stepped into his room—nope, Danny was very awake, very naked, and very hard. Fuck.

“Hi,” Danny said, grinning like a loon, and Steve couldn’t do anything but laugh.

“Hi.”

Danny tugged him down onto the bed, and Steve ran a hand down his side, trying to remember what he told himself that very morning about the benefits of going slow. “Babe, you’re drunk, and I feel like I’m taking advantage of you.”

“Steve,” he said plainly, with a wry twist to his mouth. “I am not _sober_ , and I certainly shouldn’t drive right now, but I’m not completely wasted and I definitely know what I’m doing.”

“Danny—”

“Just let me have a little liquid courage, okay?” he said softly, and Steve swallowed hard.

“Danny, if you don’t want to, you really—”

“Oh, I want to,” Danny interrupted, his eyes lighting up, and Steve was pretty sure he wasn’t lying. “I very much want to, in fact. But I’m pretty sure it’ll be terrible, so maybe the alcohol will help dull my embarrassment.”

“It won’t be terrible,” Steve said confidently, pausing their conversation to kiss him because well, he was there, and he was naked. “Maybe the alcohol will help you forget if I come in like two minutes.”

Danny huffed a laugh and pushed him flat on his back. “I’ll take it as a compliment, I promise.”

“I’m gonna hold you to that.”

“Be useful,” he ordered, jerking his head toward Steve. “Take off your shirt.”

Steve laughed and tugged it off his head, tossing it onto the floor. Danny was working on his pants, and he squirmed out of those, too. He wasted no time, and although the first touch of Danny’s tongue was tentative, Steve gasped anyway. “Oh, fuck.”

Danny made some kind of unintelligible noise that maybe sounded like a moan, and Steve chose to believe that’s what it was. And the liquid courage must have been working because Danny really went for it, licking and sucking with an enthusiasm that was on the right side of sloppy.

Steve wavered a second before doing it but finally rested his hand on Danny’s head, letting his fingers slide through the soft strands of his hair. The thought of this whole thing—that it was _Danny_ , doing this for the first time for him—was getting him off nearly as much as the physical sensations were. Not that the sensations were anywhere near terrible, as Danny had predicted. It was pretty good, actually, with the definite potential to be really great, and if Steve wasn’t careful, his warning was going to come true. He consciously kept his hips still and fisted his free hand in the comforter.

“Danny,” he said, hoarsely. “Danny, I’m gonna—”

He pulled off with one last hard suck and replaced his mouth with his hand, sliding quickly and easily. Danny looked up at him, those stormy blue eyes boring into him, cataloguing every reaction, and that was it. Steve clenched his own eyes shut and groaned as he came, finally letting his hips thrust up into Danny’s grip. “Oh, shit, Danny,” he said, breathing hard. He scooched over and smiled as Danny crawled up to the head of the bed. “That was great.”

“Mmm, m’glad,” Danny mumbled into his shoulder, his eyes already closed. “I’m drunk and tired, so I’m gonna g’sleep.”

Steve laughed quietly and carefully arranged them so that Danny’s body weight wasn’t cutting off circulation to his arm. He kissed him on the forehead and closed his eyes, too.

* * *

Steve was very quickly getting used to waking up with Danny, especially now that Danny was in _his_ bed for the first time. He was still asleep, sprawled on his back with one arm folded up above his head, and Steve rolled a little closer. He felt a little bad that Danny didn’t have an orgasm last night, especially after he’d been the one to step out onto the ledge, so to speak.

But a morning blow job had to help a hangover, right? And he would have the benefit of Danny being sleepy, so maybe he wouldn’t notice that Steve’s skill level was decidedly subpar. They were still conveniently naked from last night, and he moved carefully under the sheets in between Danny’s legs before he lost his nerve.

Steve felt an immediate rush of sympathy for all of the women who had ever done this to him because it was more than a little awkward. Danny’s sharp gasp was pretty gratifying, though, as was the way he muttered Steve’s name sleepily. Good—even though he was half-asleep, he knew it was Steve down there and not some girl.

Steve kept exploring, licking around and sucking experimentally. He was pleasantly surprised by the taste—or the lack thereof, really, because it just tasted like skin. Danny’s hand had found its way into Steve’s hair, gripping it tightly, and he _really_ liked that. Hmm. Danny was muttering things, interspersed with little groans and grunts, but unfortunately, Steve couldn’t hear so well through the sheets.

A few minutes later, Danny’s dick swelled in his mouth, and he was caught off-guard by the sudden thick, salty taste. Coughing, Steve turned his head and managed to catch the rest of Danny’s come on his cheek. He swallowed what he could and coughed again, then wiped his face with the sheet. Well, that was new.

“Oh, fuck, babe,” Danny said, reaching down to tug him up. “I’m so sorry. It came on really fast, and I didn’t even—”

“It’s okay,” he said as he coughed one last time. “Trial by fire, right?”

Danny laughed and pulled him into a kiss, nudging his hand in between them to grip Steve’s dick. It was a little rough, a little dry, but Steve was so close that it was more than fine. He spilled over Danny’s hip only a couple minutes later, muffling his shout against his neck.

“Do you remember?” he asked, after he caught his breath. “Last night, I mean.”

“Of course I remember,” Danny said with a huff. “I remember that you did, in fact, come pretty fast, and I am taking that as a compliment, just as promised.”

“Good.”

“You not gonna go swim? I’m shocked.”

“I will,” Steve said, pulling Danny a little closer and closing his eyes again. “In a minute.”


	7. Chapter Seven

“We got something,” Steve announced, striding into the bullpen, and everyone looked up at him.

“Yeah?” Kono asked, her eyes lighting up, and he grimaced.

“Don’t get excited, it’s probably nothing. But Leslie, the general manager, called me this morning. She was doing payroll, apparently, for the month and forgot that they just hired a new dishwasher, Paul Weverly. He wasn’t on the staff list that we had originally.”

“Gives us something to do, at least. Should we go talk to him?” she asked.

“Yeah, how about you and Danny go?” he suggested, and they both nodded. He turned toward Chin. “Can we get an address for him?”

As they waited for Chin to do his magic, Steve was careful not to look at Danny. He’d never dated someone whom he worked so closely with, and he wasn’t exactly sure how to handle it. Should they not be partners anymore? The thought of it made his heart ache, but he would do whatever was best for the team. He knew he needed to talk to Danny about it, but since they hadn’t yet, he figured that for the time being it wouldn’t hurt for them to split up every once in a while.

“Okay, we got him,” Chin said. “He does have a couple low-level drug offenses.”

Kono nodded and slung her arm over Danny’s shoulders. “C’mon, partner, let’s go.”

* * *

“Steve!” Chin yelled, and Steve looked up immediately from where he was leaning over the computer table, scrolling through more security footage with Grover. Chin was standing in the doorway of his office, holding his phone, his face pinched with worry.

“What?” he asked warily—Chin rarely ever raised his voice.

“That was Adam, he just got off the phone with someone at the hospital. Kono was just brought into the ER, unconscious.”

Steve inhaled sharply. “Shit. What happened, is she okay?”

“He, uh, he’s not sure, he’s on the way to the hospital now. The woman he talked to said she was stable, though.”

“Wasn’t Danny with her?” Grover chimed in, and Steve had to grip the edge of the table, hard, to stay standing.

“Yeah, yeah, he was,” he said, finally. “If he was brought to the hospital with her, they should have called me—I’m listed on his paperwork as his emergency contact and his power of attorney.” 

“I told Adam, and he was going to call them back and ask.” 

“Fuck,” Steve bit out, trying to concentrate in spite of the disastrous scenarios spinning through his mind. He dug his phone out of his pocket and tried to call Danny. “It’s going straight to voicemail, shit.”

Chin’s phone rang, startling all of them, and he answered it immediately. He was silent for a minute, then slipped his phone back into his pocket and shook his head grimly. “Adam talked to the EMTs who brought her in—a bystander called it in and when they got there, she was just lying in the street, by herself. No one else around, and the bystander didn’t see anything.”

Steve swore softly and hooked his hands together behind his neck, a powerful wave of regret washing over him. “Oh, god. I should have been there. This never would have—”

“Hey,” Chin said, his face sharpening into a frown. “Kono is perfectly capable—”

Steve winced and moved his hands to cover his face instead. “Fuck, Chin, no, I didn’t mean—I would trust her to have my back, any day, you know that. It’s just hard not to think of what ifs.”

“Okay, okay, let’s not jump to the worst-case scenario,” Grover said. “He could have dropped his phone.”

“He would have stayed with Kono,” Steve said, from behind his hands. “If she was hurt, he would have stayed with her no matter what, unless he didn’t have a choice.”

“Steve,” Chin said lowly, laying a hand on his arm. “I’ll go to the hospital to check on Kono, you and Grover go to the scene.”

“Yeah,” he said, scrubbing his hands down his face. He had to keep it together, for Danny. “Yeah, okay. Do you have the address?”

“Sent it to your phone already.”

“Okay, thanks. Call me as soon as you know anything about Kono, okay?” he said, and Grover appeared by his shoulder, making him jump. He was geared up already, holding out Steve’s vest, and he slipped it on. 

Kono and Danny had taken the Camaro, so Steve was stuck riding shotgun in Grover’s truck. His hands itched to shove Grover out of the driver’s seat, but he busied them by checking his gun instead, for the tenth time in as many blocks.

“Hey,” Grover said, his voice uncharacteristically gentle, “he’s gonna be fine. We’ll probably find him, complaining about how they stole his phone and messed up his hair.”

Steve just grunted and willed them to get there faster. No one on the team knew about their relationship, of course, but they were close enough that his concern wouldn’t seem suspicious. Not that he was at all worried about _that_ , not when he could worry about where Danny was and how badly he was hurt, if he was even alive.

By then, they were only a few blocks away from the address Danny and Kono went to check out, and Steve started scanning the area. “There!” he called out, pointing. “That alley over there, there’s our car.”

Grover pulled over to the curb, and Steve jumped out of the truck before it even stopped moving. He raced over to the Camaro and circled it slowly, but nothing looked amiss.

“Everything looks okay,” Grover said, walking up behind him, and Steve nodded.

“Yeah. No sign of a struggle here.”

They split up and covered the next couple blocks but didn’t find anything until Grover stopped in his tracks.

“I got blood!” he yelled, and Steve’s stomach clenched. It wasn’t an insignificant amount, though likely not life-threatening, and it looked fresh. “Probably Kono’s.”

Steve didn’t say it aloud, but he really hoped that it was. “Let’s check in there,” he said, jerking his head toward the large, rickety-looking building down the street. The door had been jammed open, so Steve carefully slipped inside, blinking rapidly to let his eyes adjust to the darkness. It was nearly empty, clearly not in use, and was full of tall, rickety metal shelves.

Fucking warehouses. Why did everything bad have to happen in a warehouse?

They were almost done clearing the space when there was a scuffle from the next aisle over, and Steve tensed immediately. As he readjusted his grip on his gun, he touched Grover’s shoulder and held his finger to his lips. They crept forward, slowly, and Steve peered around the corner first. All of his breath left him in a rush at the sight of Danny, dirty and rumpled and bloody, trying to stand up at the end of the aisle. “Steve,” he called out hoarsely, with one arm wrapped around his ribs, and Steve’s heart clenched as he ran toward him. 

He slid down to his knees and caught Danny by the shoulders, lowering him gently to the ground. “Danny, Danny, Danny,” he chanted, looking him over for obvious injuries. “What’s wrong, babe, what happened? What hurts?”

“Kono,” he forced out. “Kono got shot, is she—”

“She’s okay,” Steve said, really hoping that he wasn’t lying to Danny. “She’s at the hospital, she’s going to be fine.”

“There were—there are three of them,” he said hoarsely. “Steve, they’re—”

“It’s okay, Danno, we cleared the place, there’s no one here.”

“There’s an ambulance on the way,” Grover said, coming up behind them, and Steve nodded absently without taking his eyes off Danny. He was covered in blood, though Steve wasn’t sure how much was his and how much was presumably Kono’s, or someone else’s. It didn’t appear to be coming from a substantial wound, not that he could tell, anyway. He had a split lip and what would probably soon be one hell of a black eye, and he seemed a little out of it, his eyes glassy and unfocused.

“I can’t—can’t breathe,” Danny said, gesturing at his torso. Steve nodded, trying very hard not to think of the last time Danny said that several years ago, and carefully unfastened his vest and unbuttoned his shirt to give him at least some psychological relief.

“What happened, babe?” he asked. If he kept him talking, maybe he wouldn’t pass out.

“We, uh,” he said, blinking. “We got ambushed. They shot Kono and took me, and, uh—”

“C’mon, Danno, stay with me.”

Steve couldn’t remember a time he was more relieved to hear sirens, and when he turned around, Grover was already jogging outside to flag them down. Danny started to struggle in his grip, and Steve gently pushed him back down. “It’s okay, just wait here.”

Danny shook his head and stood up, staggering a little and leaning against Steve. “No, I can walk.”

Steve huffed a laugh—stubborn ass—and slung an arm around his shoulders. He wanted to pick him up, but since he knew Danny would never let him hear the end of it, he settled for taking as much of his weight as he could. He hopped right into that ambulance behind Danny, without even a second thought.

“I’ll meet you guys at the hospital!” Grover called out, and Steve shot him a thumbs-up and a nod.

Danny stayed conscious for the short ride to the hospital, barely, and Steve just tried to stay out of the way as they checked his vitals. He managed to jog alongside the gurney as they entered the hospital, but eventually one of the ER doctors stopped him.

“Please let me—”

“Sir,” the woman said, her voice as firm as the grip she had on his arm. “We need the space. I will come find you as soon as you can see him, I promise. Okay?”

Steve swallowed hard and nodded, releasing his hold on the gurney. He watched them disappear through the doors and sighed, running his hand over his hair and then grimacing at the tacky feel of blood. At the very least, he could go wash his hands.

* * *

There were unfamiliar sheets under Danny again, and at first he thought they were Steve’s. But as he slowly regained consciousness, he realized that they were stiffer than what he’d been waking up on, and plus, Steve’s bedroom didn’t smell like antiseptic. Fuck, he was in the hospital.

He groaned, keeping his eyes closed, and startled slightly at the warm hand on his forearm. “Danno?”

At least that voice was familiar. “Hey,” he croaked, trying to find enough moisture in his throat to talk.

“Here,” Steve said, thrusting a little paper cup of water toward him, and he sipped at it gratefully.

“Thanks.” He coughed and shifted to try and sit up some, gritting his teeth against the pain in his torso. “How long was I out?”

“Not long, I don’t think. They only let me in a few minutes ago, but we’ve been here less than an hour,” he said, and Danny nodded. “Do you remember what happened?”

“Yeah,” he said with a sigh, then jerked. “Oh god, Kono. Is she okay?”

“She’s fine,” Steve said quickly, tightening the hold he still had on his forearm. “She got shot in the arm and has a minor concussion, but she’s fine. She doesn’t even have to stay overnight.”

“Thank god. What about me?”

“They’re not sure yet, I think they might want to do some more tests. You’ve got some bruised ribs.”

“Yeah, I can tell. Judging from how it feels, I’m pretty sure my torso is going to look like a Jackson Pollock for a while.”

“A Jackson Pollock, really?” Steve said, chuckling.

“What,” Danny said, shrugging and then immediately wincing as the movement pulled at his chest. “I’m cultured.”

“You also look like you got into quite the fight,” Steve said, with a tiny smile, and Danny winced, lifting his hand to prod at his eye. He could feel the swelling, and he was sure that he looked completely unappealing right now.

“Yeah. There were three of them, they ambushed us before we even got to that guy’s address. They shot at us, and I tried to help Kono, but they pulled me away and tried to take me somewhere. I managed to fight them off for a little bit, then I guess the sirens scared them because they ran off. But I must have passed out for a little while because the next thing I remember is seeing you and Grover. Who I need to thank, by the way.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Oh, I was just talking about Grover,” Danny said, smirking, and Steve laughed. He sobered after a second and slid his hand down Danny’s arm to tangle their fingers together.

“You really scared me, you know,” he said, not quite meeting Danny’s eyes, and he swallowed hard.

“I’m sorry, babe,” he said, but Steve shook his head.

“God, no, don’t be sorry. You kept them from taking you somewhere, that was amazing.”

Danny squeezed his hand but didn’t respond. It seemed like Steve wanted to say something else, and he’d learned that waiting him out was often the most effective method at revealing McGarrett emotions. Sure enough, a couple minutes later, he opened his mouth but kept his gaze on Danny’s chest.

“I love you, you know,” he said quietly. “I mean, I know we’ve said—”

“I know,” he interrupted. “And I love you, too.”

“I thought that you only said it when you really meant it,” Steve said, one corner of his mouth lifting in a boyish smirk, and Danny laughed.

“Yeah, and I meant it every time, babe.”

Steve leaned forward and kissed him gently, avoiding his split lip, and he smiled.

“Okay,” he said, patting Danny on the thigh as he stood up. “I’m gonna go check on Kono, I’ll be back in a bit.”

“What, too many emotions at one time for you?” Danny called out, and Steve flipped him the bird over his shoulder as he left. Danny laughed and tried in vain to find a position that didn’t make his ribs scream.

* * *

“Babe,” he said with a sigh, “you can just take me to my apartment, okay? It’s fine.”

Steve shook his head, his jaw set in that stubborn clench as he drove toward his own house instead of Danny’s apartment. “C’mon. Just let me take care of you, okay? Please?”

The word _please_ coming out of Steve’s mouth was a rare enough occasion that Danny stopped protesting. He had successfully cajoled his way out of an overnight hospital stay, but right now it was late, and he really just wanted to sleep. If Steve wanted to put up with his grumpiness and limited mobility for the time being, so be it. His bed was comfier, anyway.

“You remember that the doctor said I basically couldn’t move for the next four days, right?” he asked, and Steve smirked.

“Of course I remember. You’ll be so much easier to keep track of.”

“Very funny,” Danny said dryly. They were at Steve’s by then, so he gritted his teeth and allowed Steve to help him out of the car and into the house, up into the bedroom. His whole torso really did hurt like a bitch.

Steve went into his dressed and tossed a handful of clothes onto the bed. “I went to your place and got a bunch of your stuff.”

“Oh,” he said, strangely touched as he watched Steve gingerly unbutton his shirt. “Thanks.”

* * *

The full breakfast in bed—complete with coffee, pancakes, eggs, and _bacon_ , of all things—was lovely, if completely unnecessary. Steve was strangely pliant, eager to do whatever asinine thing Danny asked of him, and it was freaking him out a little bit. (He’d been forced to admit that no, he did not actually need help going to the bathroom.) Danny could tell that this was a patented case of misplaced McGarrett guilt, and they were going to talk about it.

“Okay,” Danny said, wiping his mouth. “Not that I’m not enjoying this—not at all, actually, if you can’t tell by how I put off this conversation until after I ate this delicious breakfast—but we need to talk.”

“About what?” Steve said, busying himself by stacking the plates.

“About whatever the hell is going on here.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” he said stiffly, and Danny sighed.

“Does it maybe have something to do with the fact that you partnered up me and Kono yesterday?” he asked. Steve’s eye twitched, but he didn’t say anything and Danny kept going. “Let me guess. Since you weren’t there—since _you_ made the decision not to be there—you have convinced yourself that this entire thing is your fault.”

“I have a lot of nightmares, okay, Danny?” Steve said, raising his voice as he started to stalk across the room. It probably wouldn’t be helpful for Danny to point out how much Steve looked like him right now. “And the worst one—it’s up against some pretty tough contenders, as you can imagine—but the worst one is when I have to go see Grace and tell her that her dad died, that I didn’t keep my promise to protect her Danno. And in those nightmares, it’s my fault every fucking time,” he said, pointing for emphasis. “Just like it was yesterday.”

Danny wanted nothing more than to push Steve around a bit—in anger instead of arousal, for once—but he figured that would violate the “seriously, move as little as humanly possible, Detective Williams” order from the doctor.

“Hey,” he said, his voice dangerously low and hard, quiet enough that Steve would have to strain to hear. It had the intended effect because Steve stopped pacing and plopped down next to him, still breathing hard. “Listen to me, you schmuck. If, god forbid, something like that ever happens, it will _never_ be your fault. You get me, Steven? Because I’m really fucking serious. Unless you shoot me on _purpose_ —in which case, please feel free to burn in hell—then it will not be your fault. The blame will rest solely on the asshole-of-the-day, on whom I will expect you to enact some swift, vicious revenge. I wouldn’t even complain if there was a shark cage involved. Maybe you can even forego the cage part.”

Steve eeked out a hoarse, wet chuckle and tipped forward, tucking his face into Danny’s neck. “I’m sorry.”

“About yesterday or about this little emotional meltdown? Which was pretty tame, really, all things considered.”

“Both,” he said, his voice muffled, and Danny smiled.

“Well, you don’t have anything to be sorry about. About _this_ , that is, there are plenty of other things for you to apologize over, I’m sure.”

“I just hate second-guessing decisions.”

“Why did you partner me up with Kono, anyway? I’m not mad, I promise,” he said quickly, raising his hands. “Just asking.”

Steve sighed and stretched out fully next to him, folding his hands across his stomach. “I don’t know. I’ve never, you know, done this before, and I don’t know what’s appropriate. Since we’re together, should we not be partners anymore?”

Danny winced—he hated the idea, but Steve could be right. “I don’t know, either. We can continue to see how it feels, and once we tell everyone else, we can see what they think, too. We’ll take it one day at a time,” he said, patting Steve’s thigh, and he nodded.

“Yeah, I guess.”

“You going to work?” Danny asked, stealing a glance at the clock on the nightstand. “It’s late.”

“I don’t have to, if you want me to stay here,” he said, and Danny scoffed.

“No, babe, I’ll be fine. Did anything else happen with the case yesterday? I’m sorry Kono and I couldn’t identify those guys,” he said with a sigh—they’d all been medium-build with ski masks on—but Steve waved his hand.

“We’re assuming Waverly is involved, and he’s disappeared. We’re going through his known associates and trying to find him. They also got the bullet fragments out of your vest, and Fong is working on them. Hopefully we’ll get lucky.”

“If you get me a laptop and Saxson’s financials or something, I’ll start working on those.”

“Are you sure?” Steve asked, frowning. “You should be resting.”

“I will be resting,” Danny said. He gestured expansively at the bed. “I can use my brain without moving, I promise.”

“Are you sure? I don’t know about that,” he said, tilting his head, and Danny used his very limited range of motion to shove at his shoulder.

“Go make yourself useful and get me another cup of coffee.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am displeased with this chapter! Harrumph. But the show must go on, and the final three chapters are better, at least! Thanks for all the ♥.


	8. Chapter Eight

Steve let himself in the front door and startled slightly at the sight of Danny stretched out on the couch. His presence in and of itself wasn’t strange, considering that he’d been living in Steve’s house for the past three days while his ribs healed, but he was wearing _glasses_ , thin ones that looked remarkably similar to the ones he wore when he went undercover as that professor.

“Hey, babe,” Danny said, looking surprised himself. “I wasn’t expecting you home for a while.”

“Hi,” he said, his tongue thick in his mouth. Danny in just boxers and Steve’s shirt and fucking _glasses_ was a little too much to handle. “The, uh, yeah, the meeting got cut short, Denning got called away.”

“Lucky for you, I know how much you hate those,” Danny said with a little smile before going back to the stack of papers he was reading.

“What are you doing?”

Sighing, he flipped the folder shut and tossed it onto the coffee table. “Still looking through the books for Saxson’s restaurant. There’s something there, I can _feel_ it, but I haven’t put my finger on it yet.”

Steve nodded, not really concerned at all with that at the moment. “And what’s with the, uh, the glasses?”

“Oh, shit,” Danny said, wincing and lifting his hand to whip them off, as if he forgot he had them on. He rubbed at his eyes. “Grace convinced me to get them last month. I hate wearing them, though, they make me feel old. But I was getting a headache reading all these numbers, so—”

“I don’t think they make you look old,” Steve interrupted. “I like them.”

“Yeah?” he said with a little grin, sliding them back on slowly, and Steve swallowed. He moved slowly, bracing one knee on the couch next to Danny’s thigh and using his palm against his chest to hold him down flat against the cushions.

“Uh-huh,” he said as he leaned down to hover a couple inches above Danny’s mouth. “I mean I _really_ like them.”

Danny exhaled shakily, his breath stuttering against Steve’s lips, and surged up to meet him halfway. Steve deepened the kiss right away and sighed into it happily—they’d subsisted on little pecks for the past three days, in deference to Danny’s injury, and it had been nowhere near enough. Danny’s groan in response did _not_ sound pleasurable, though, and Steve leapt off the couch as fast as he could. “Oh, fuck, your ribs—god, Danno, I’m sorry.”

“No, no, it’s fine,” he said, shaking his head. “It’s mostly better, but having a giant person on top of me is a little too much for me to handle.”

Danny stood up carefully and guided Steve by the elbows back toward the couch, pushing him down. He kneeled down in front of him, and Steve spread his legs automatically. “Danny, are you sure, your ribs—”

“Okay, if you keep saying _are you sure_ every time I wanna suck your dick, I’m gonna get a complex,” he said, glaring at Steve as he unbuttoned his pants.

“Sorry,” he said, smiling.

“So glasses, huh? That’s your thing?”

Steve laughed as he stripped off his shirt. “Apparently.”

“Do you have some repressed teacher kink or something? Maybe a hot librarian at Annapolis that you wish you could have fucked?” Danny asked, pulling his pants and boxers down to his knees, and Steve gasped out a laugh as he shook his head.

“Nope, just add it to the list of new things.”

“Oh, it’s a fun list.”

Steve had something to say in response to that, he really did, but it got lost somewhere on the way from his brain to his mouth when Danny leaned forward and closed his mouth over the head of Steve’s dick. After a few glorious minutes, though, he pulled off and sat back on his heels, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. Steve desperately wanted to whine or make some other sort of embarrassing noise, but he bit his lip instead.

“You know,” Danny said mildly, as if stopping mid-blow job for a conversation was a totally normal thing to do, “all this moving really does hurt my ribs.”

Steve immediately felt like an asshole and reached for his boxers—he knew they shouldn’t have done this. “Shit, Danny—”

“Oh, no,” he said, catching Steve’s hand in mid-air and twisting it away. “You’re not going anywhere. I’m just letting you know that this might be a little slow.”

Steve blew out a loud breath through his nose and nodded. Okay, he could do slow. No big deal, right?

Five minutes later, he desperately wanted to go back and change his mind because Danny didn’t let on that what he really meant by slow was fucking _torturous_. The tension between them was thick, so much so that Steve felt frozen in place, pinned by his arousal, as if everything would disappear if he dared to move. Danny’s slurps and sucks sounded even more obscene in the quiet room, and Steve sucked his lower lip in between his teeth, not daring to disrupt the medley with his own sounds. Afraid to touch him, he was in danger of tearing holes in the couch with his hands.

The glorious slide of Danny’s mouth was deliberate and unhurried, achingly so, and Steve was strung like a bow, his muscles quivering as he forced himself to keep still. Danny’s fingers were warm and nimble on Steve’s balls, tugging lightly, and his hips twitched of their own accord. “Fuck, Danny,” he said, breaking his vow of silence, the desperate note of his voice sounding foreign to his own ears. “Please.”

Danny just hummed in response, the added sensation making Steve shiver. He didn’t respond to Steve’s pleas; if anything, he slowed down a little more and Steve groaned in frustration. He was so fucking close, and part of him wanted to shove Danny away and get himself off in about three strokes of his hand. He kept holding his breath, in anticipation of an orgasm that just wouldn’t come, and then finally releasing it in a rush when the spots started to dance in front of his eyes.

Danny pulled off a few minutes later, replacing his mouth with his hand, and Steve sat up eagerly in anticipation. His hand was just as leisurely as his mouth, though, maybe even more so as he squeezed and twisted in a mindless pattern. It would have been impossible for Steve to actually form words right now, so he locked eyes with Danny, begging him not to stop.

He finally came, splashing over Danny’s hand and his own stomach, and it felt like it lasted a year, pulsing until there was nothing left. He tipped his head back with a groan and gave into the shudders wracking his body. When he opened his eyes and looked down at Danny, just grinning and wearing those _fucking_ glasses, Steve swore that his dick twitched against his thigh. “I’m gonna get you back for that.”

“Good,” he said as he stood up slowly.

Danny’s dick, hard and an angry red, had poked through the fly in his boxers, but when he reached for it, Steve growled. “Don’t,” he said, and an amazing rush flowed through him when Danny’s hand stilled. “I was serious. As soon as I can move again, I’m getting you back for that.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Mhmm. Let’s go shower.”

Danny started toward the stairs but paused and looked over his shoulder when Steve didn’t follow. “You coming?”

“In a minute,” Steve said, not willing to admit that he wasn’t sure he could stand up yet. “Don’t start without me!”

As soon as Danny disappeared up the stairs, Steve braced himself against the arm of the couch and stood up gingerly, stepping out of his pants and boxers. A little shaky, but he was good. He made his way up the stairs slowly and smiled at the wisps of steam already peeking out from under the bathroom door. Danny liked his showers _hot_ , and Steve was trying to adapt.

The glasses were strewn carelessly on the counter next to the sink, and Steve mourned their absence. He stepped into the shower, wincing at the pinpricks of heat against his back but quickly distracted by naked Danny. He pushed Danny against the wall—very gently—and kissed him, careful not to rest any of his weight against him.

“Not gonna break,” Danny mumbled against his lips, tugging him a little closer, and Steve smiled. He slid a hand down between them and gave Danny’s dick a few lazy pumps but then pulled away and reached for the shampoo.

“Uh, what the hell are you doing?” Danny asked, as Steve slid his fingers into his hair.

“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m washing your hair, I’m being nice.”

“You’re being an ass,” he grumbled, and Steve gasped quietly.

“Well, that’s not a very nice thing to say.”

He increased the pressure of his fingers, massaging Danny’s head and smiling when he groaned. Steve manhandled him over to the spray and carefully shielded his eyes as he rinsed his hair. He stroked Danny’s dick again, longer this time, with his still-soapy hand, but pulled away just as Danny was starting to thrust back against him.

“Damn it, Steve, I—”

“Shh,” he interrupted. He got a squirt of conditioner—he himself had never used the stuff, but a bottle had magically appeared in his shower—and rubbed Danny’s head again, though he couldn’t quite tell if the resulting groan was of pleasure or frustration. Judging by the thigh he had just wedged between Danny’s legs, it was probably both. “I’m taking care of your hair, I’m not sure why you’re complaining.”

“You know exactly why I’m complaining, you jerk,” Danny said with a growl and bit at his nipple, making Steve groan and brace his hand against the wall. He rinsed his hair again and pushed Danny back against the wall, pressing his hand against his chest for a long second as a silent order to stay there. Steve washed his own hair quickly, bypassing the conditioner, and started to soap himself thoroughly, maybe a little slower than usual.

“You are the fucking worst,” Danny said, but Steve didn’t quite believe it, not with that glazed look in Danny’s eyes. He moved, stealing a bit of soap from Steve’s thigh, and then returned to his slump against the wall and reached for his own dick, sliding slowly and cupping his palm over the head.

Steve watched for a minute, transfixed by the sight as he continued to clean himself. Finally Steve grabbed his wrist and made him stop because as hot as it was, _he_ was going to make Danny come. He rinsed quickly and got more soap, then crowded Danny against the wall again.

Danny was quiet, actually, just grinding gently against Steve’s thigh and breathing hard as he allowed Steve to soap him up. It was a lot more intimate than he expected, even with Danny’s hard dick between them and the steam partially obstructing his view, and Steve relished the opportunity to run his hands over Danny’s broad shoulders, down his slim hips, around that tight ass. He avoided Danny’s dick completely, but Danny seemed to have given up on asking with words, instead just pleading with his body as he gripped his hips and pressed completely against Steve.

The tile floor was not very forgiving on his knees, but hey, he was a SEAL—he could handle it. And with the way Danny cried out in relief and tugged on his hair, he didn’t think he would be down there for very long. He sucked long and hard for probably less than a minute, until he heard Danny start cursing.

“Fuck, Steve, I’m—”

Danny’s warning wasn’t actually much of a warning, and Steve moved just enough to get come all over his face instead of inside his mouth. At least he was in the shower this time, though, so he just turned into the spray for a second before he stood up.

“Did that hurt?” he asked as he ran his hand gently over Danny’s ribs.

“Yeah,” he said, wincing as he continued to pant. “But it was worth it.”

* * *

“Welcome back, Danny,” Kono said, hugging him gently with her good arm.

“You, too, babe,” he said with a smile. There was a bulky bandage on her upper arm, under her shirt sleeve, but she looked perky. “How’re you feeling?”

“Not too bad,” she said as she rotated her arm. “Just sore. How about you?”

“Not ready for vigorous exercise quite yet,” he said, sneaking a glance at Steve, who smirked, “but it’s better.”

“Coffee and malasadas for our fallen comrades,” Chin said, setting the treats on the table, and Danny hugged him, too, what the hell. He was happy, especially now that he had caffeine and sugar and could move around without grimacing.

“Okay, fill us in,” Kono said, rubbing her hands together. “Any new leads?”

“Well, we heard back from the crime lab,” Grover said. “They found a fingerprint on one of the bullets from Danny’s vest that matches one of the fingerprints in the kitchen.”

“Oh, wow,” Steve said, nodding. “So it’s definitely connected. But it’s not Weverly’s, right?”

“Nope, doesn’t match his prints in the system.”

“Doesn’t mean that he’s not involved, though,” Kono said. “It would just be too big of a coincidence.”

“Yeah, especially because he seems to have disappeared off the trace of the earth,” Chin said with a sigh. “Any luck with the restaurant books, Danny?”

“Yeah, actually. I mean, I’m no expert, but it seems like their profit is ridiculous. For a restaurant that size, they just don’t seem to spend that much on food, especially seafood. It seems sketchy.”

“Could we talk to Leslie about it?” Kono asked.

“She told me that she really doesn’t have anything to do with the kitchen side, not even the financials,” Steve said. “But maybe we could look at the books for one of their other restaurants, to compare.”

“You know,” Chin said slowly, “one of my first big cases with HPD was breaking up this big illegal fishing ring.”

“Illegal fishermen?” Danny asked, spreading his hands. “Is that a thing, seriously?”

“Oh, yeah,” Kono said, nodding. “Commercial fishing is serious business in Hawaii, it’s expensive and there are lots of licenses and regulations. There are people who flout those rules and are able to sell seafood under the table for a lot cheaper.”

“Huh,” Steve said. “Do you think that could be going on here?”

“I mean, I have no idea if it has anything to do with why he was killed,” Chin said. “But if they were engaging with some unsavory characters, that’s a decent place to look.”

“We could ask Temple,” Danny said, swiveling toward Steve. “Maybe he would know if someone was out there doing this.”

“Do you think he’ll tell us anything?” Grover asked. “He was our main suspect for a while, after all.”

“I think there’s a decent chance. I’ll call him,” Steve said, reaching into his pocket. He turned his phone on speaker and set it on the computer table.

“Hello?”

“Ryan, this is Commander McGarrett, from Five-0.”

It was quiet for a minute, and Danny gritted his teeth.

“What do you want?” he said finally.

“We just have a question, and we were hoping that you could help us out.”

“Okay,” he said, sounding a little more willing. “Shoot.”

“We have some suspicions that Saxson may have been involved with some illegal commercial fishing. Would you know anything about that?”

Silence again, and Steve nodded at them. Maybe they were getting somewhere. “C’mon, Ryan, please,” he continued. “We think these are the people who killed Saxson, and they also attacked my team. You gotta tell us what you know.”

“What about me?” Temple asked.

“I have no interest in bringing you down,” Steve said. “I just want to find out who killed Saxson.”

“Okay,” he said with a sigh. “There’s a group of guys who—who provide seafood for a lot of the restaurants in town. Their prices are low, and I’m not sure if everything is done above board.”

Danny pumped his fist and exchanged thumbs-up with Chin.

“Can you tell us who they are?”

“Man, if they killed Saxson—”

“No one will know it was you, okay? I promise. We get you HPD protection, and Jane, too, if you want,” Steve said. “Does the name Paul Weverly sound familiar to you?”

“No, it doesn’t. I only dealt with two guys, Raul and Evan, but I have no idea if those are their real names. Or if they’re the ones in charge.”

“How did you connect with them?”

“There’s a warehouse by the docks where people could pick up their orders.”

“Do you have an address?”

“I don’t know the actual address, but I can give you the general location.”

By the end of the day, they had it pretty wrapped up. Temple had given them the bank account numbers that they used for payment, and Chin had been able to connect it to two guys. They had a vigorous discussion about whether Danny and Kono were healed enough to come on the raid, and finally Steve relented, if only because they were decidedly not taking no for an answer.

They followed Temple’s directions to an old warehouse by the water, and Danny did get Steve to _call_ for backup, at least, although he absolutely didn’t wait for it. The warehouse was empty, but Danny pointed at a light on the second floor, at what looked like an office. They crept up the stairs and Steve and Grover stormed through the door. There were two guys inside, plus two girls in slinky dresses, and Danny winced—at least everyone’s pants were still on. No drugs that he could see, but there was a gun and what looked like enough cash for two high-class call girls.

The takedown was surprisingly calm, though Steve was surely pissed that he didn’t even get to fire his gun. Danny left his team to handle the arrest duties and wandered over to the two girls, who had huddled together against the wall and looked terrified. They were young but not children, thank fuck—if that were the case, Danny’s ribs wouldn’t be strong enough to handle the beating that those two guys would deserve. “I’m not going to arrest you,” he said, lifting his hands. “Is there anyone above you that I _do_ need to arrest? Are you being coerced? You can tell me, I promise, we can take care of it.”

“No,” one of them said. “We’re independent, just the two of us.”

“Okay. We think these guys did some pretty bad stuff,” he said, jerking his head toward the two perps that were currently being led outside. “Did you know them at all? Anything you can tell us?”

The other girl shook her head, her dark hair swishing in her face. “No, today was the first time we met them, I swear.”

Danny’s gut told him that they were telling the truth, so he nodded and gestured toward the back door. “Then get out of here, okay? This place is going to be crawling with cops in about five minutes. And I’ll pretend not to look if you take the cash on that table over there.”

_Thank you_ , one of them mouthed as the other grabbed her hand and tugged her toward the door.

“Please be careful!” he called out after them, then shook his head. God, he was such a dad.

He made his way back outside, where Chin and Grover had a good hold on the two guys and were obviously waiting for HPD to show up. “You missed all the action,” Steve said as he broke away from the group to join Danny. “They told us everything already.”

“Yeah?” Danny asked, surprised.

“Yep. Apparently the business decided to expand from illegal fishing to drugs. Saxson overheard something and threatened to tell the cops. They threatened right back, but Saxson didn’t listen and so they killed him. Of course, these guys are claiming that they’re not the ones in charge, but we can figure that out later.”

“Wow.”

“Where’d those girls go?” Steve asked, and Danny shrugged.

“I have no idea,” he said, pasting a look of innocence on his face. “I asked them if they were involved, they said no, then I must have turned my back or something because they just disappeared.”

Steve tilted his head. “Wow, that’s very convenient.”

“Don’t know what to tell ya,” he said, shrugging again, and Steve smiled at him.

“Uh-huh, sure. Are they okay?”

“I’m pretty sure, I asked.”

“Good.”


	9. Chapter Nine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is actually the last plot-driven chapter of this story—chapter 10 will just be some gratuitous, E-rated smut!

“Do you want another one?” Steve asked, draping his arm around Danny’s shoulders and speaking right into his ear. They’d stopped off at a bar for a couple drinks after work, and it was crowded and loud.

“Yeah, one more would be good,” he said as he patted Steve on the stomach. “You want me to—”

“No, no, I got it. Be right back.”

Steve pushed closer to the bar and leaned against it, looking for the bartender. He caught the eye of a younger guy next to him, who had an open look of disgust on his face. “That shit is gross, man. If you know what’s good for you, you better take your boy toy somewhere else.”

Steve had no idea what happened, but suddenly there was just white noise in his head and he was holding this jerk against the wall with his forearm pressed against his throat, and people were yelling. Finally, Danny’s voice pierced through the haze.

“Hey,” he hissed, pulling at Steve’s arm. “What the fuck are you doing? _Stop_. Let him go.”

Steve shook himself slightly and stepped back, taking his hands off the guy and glaring at him instead. He had to keep it together—he blinked and tried to breathe deeply as he clenched and released his fists.

“Ugh, I was right. Fags.”

Danny rolled his eyes with a huff and socked the guy right in the jaw. Steve’s eyes widened—Danny threw a strong punch, and he remembered exactly how much it hurt. The asshole was slumped on the floor now, cradling his face, and Danny crouched down next to him.

“Seriously, are you that much of a goddamn idiot? This guy—my _boyfriend_ , actually, since you seem so interested—could kill you in about two seconds with his fucking pinky finger, and I just pulled him off you. And that’s the thanks I get? Really?”

“Danny,” Steve said softly, his hand on his shoulder. “C’mon, let’s go.”

He stood up with a wince, shaking out his bad leg, and nodded. “Yeah.”

Steve slapped a twenty on the bar to cover their tab, shot the poor bartender an apologetic glance for disturbing the peace, and slung his arm around Danny’s shoulders to guide him outside. Danny veered off toward the stretch of beach that abutted the bar, shaking off Steve’s arm, and Steve followed meekly, lowering himself down to the sand when Danny plopped down.

“So I don’t think we can go around beating up everyone who’s mean to us,” Danny said eventually, breaking the silence, and Steve laughed in spite of himself.

“Yeah, probably not.”

“Does it bother you that much?” Danny said softly, looking out toward the ocean. “Are you embarrassed?”

Steve inhaled sharply and tugged at Danny’s arm until he turned to look at him. “No,” he said, making his voice as firm as he could. “God, not at all, Danno, I promise.”

“Then what was—”

“He insulted you!” Steve said, trying to keep his voice down. “He _threatened_ me. I will always protect people I love, you know that.”

“I know,” he said soothingly. He slid his hand over Steve’s and twined their fingers together. “I believe you.”

“Is it—I mean, do you have a problem with the public thing?”

“Nope,” Danny said, popping the _p_. “Fuck those losers who have a problem with it.”

Steve smiled and squeezed his hand. “I think we should tell people.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I mean, neither of us ran screaming at the sight of another guy’s dick, so I think we’re gonna be okay.”

Danny laughed and knocked their shoulders together. “And we experienced our first homophobic asshole tonight, I’m pretty sure that’s an important rite of passage for any non-straight person.”

“Plus, according to you, I’m your boyfriend now,” Steve said, and he grinned when Danny’s cheeks pinked.

“Shut up,” he grumbled. “It felt weird to say.”

“Aw, I liked it.”

“Well, I guess if I can get used to sucking your dick, then I could probably get used to calling you my boyfriend.”

“I would hope so. You’re a quick study.”

Danny groaned and turned his face into Steve’s shoulder. “Please stop.”

“Oh, am I not allowed to sing your praises?” he asked, chuckling.

“No comment.”

“You have a lot of skills. After all, that was a pretty good punch,” Steve said, one corner of his mouth turning up, and Danny smirked.

“I always got your back, babe, you know that.”

“That’s kinda hot…knowing that you would beat someone up for me.”

“That _would_ do it for you, wouldn’t it?” he said with a huff, and Steve laughed. Danny kissed him, sweet and playful, and Steve smiled into it, sliding his hand into his hair just because he knew it would make him squirm.

“So, Grace first?” Steve asked when he pulled back, and Danny smiled. It was the soft smile Steve loved, the one that Danny only used for Grace—and now sometimes for Steve, he was pretty sure.

“Yeah. Yeah, of course. I have both of them on Saturday, I’ll tell her. And Rachel, oh god.”

“Is it—I mean, do you think she’s going to use it against you?”

Danny sighed. Steve was the only person besides Danny’s lawyer who knew that he planned to fight Rachel for shared custody of Charlie. “I hope not. I really doubt it, though. She’s always been accepting of everyone, and I know we’ve both been trying to pass those values onto Grace. So I would be surprised.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine. C’mon, boyfriend,” Steve said, brushing off the sand as he stood up. “Let’s go home.”

* * *

“Hey, Gracie,” Danny said, knocking lightly on her door frame. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

She looked up from her book and shifted so that she was sitting up in bed, leaning against the headboard. “Sure. Is something wrong?”

“No, not at all,” he said, schooling his features into something more upbeat as he took a seat on the edge of her bed. God, this was awkward. Steve had offered to talk to Grace with him, but he’d decided that it would be better to do it alone. Now he was regretting that a little bit, if only because Steve would at least be a comforting presence.

“Are you _sure_ nothing’s wrong?” she said, her brow furrowed. “Am I in trouble?”

“No, no, I promise.” He smiled at her and playfully tugged on her foot over the blanket.

“Okay, good,” she said with an exaggerated sigh, and he laughed.

“I just wanted to tell you that, uh, that Steve and I are dating now. We’re in a relationship,” he said. Grace didn’t say anything, just looked at him with wide eyes, and he rushed to fill the silence. “It’s fine if you’re not okay with it. Or if you just need some time to think about it.”

“No,” she said, shaking her head quickly. “I’m not upset or anything like that. Just...confused, I guess.”

“That’s okay, too. I understand the feeling,” he said with a little chuckle, trying to lighten the mood.

“Is it okay if I, uh, ask you something?”

“Of course, sweetie, you never have to ask. You can _always_ ask me anything.”

Grace nodded and was quiet for a long moment before she spoke again. “Has this been going on the whole time?”

“No, definitely not. This is pretty new.”

“Are you gay?” she asked frankly. “Is that why you and Mom got divorced?”

“No. To both questions,” he said. Grace looked at him expectantly, ready for more, and Danny winced. He was not prepared for this to turn into a discussion of sexuality, mostly because he wasn’t very clear on everything himself. “Well, some people like people of both genders.”

“I know _that_ , Dad, they’re called bisexual,” she interrupted, rolling her eyes, and Danny laughed at the same time as he sobbed internally. God, when had his daughter gotten so grown-up?

“And some people find other people who...who change what they thought about themselves before. Or so I’ve discovered. Does that make sense?”

Grace wrinkled her nose. “Um, I’m not sure that I understand.”

“Well, I can tell you that I don’t really understand it, either. I have never dated a man before, I have never wanted to date a man before, but now I’m dating Steve. That’s all I know.”

“Okay,” Grace said, nodding. She appeared to be satisfied with that answer, at least for the moment, and Danny exhaled. “Are things gonna change?”

“What do you mean, monkey?”

“Like, are you going to move in with him?”

“Oh,” he said, surprised. “Well, maybe someday, but that’s certainly not in the plans anytime soon. Would it be okay with you if we spent more time over there, though? Steve wants to turn Mary’s old room into a room for you.”

She nodded. “Yeah, of course, you know how much I love Uncle Steve. Wait,” she said, scrunching up her face. “Should I stop calling him Uncle Steve?”

Danny spread his hands and shrugged. “That is between the two of you. You can call him whatever you want.”

“What about Step-Steve?” she said with a smirk, and he laughed.

“As I said, as far as I’m concerned, you can call him whatever you want.”

“Does Mom know?” Grace asked, and Danny shook his head.

“No, not yet. But I’m not asking you to keep anything from her,” he said quickly. “I’ll tell her when she comes to pick you up. You are the most important person who needed to know, so we haven’t told anyone else yet.”

“Not even Chin and Kono and Grover?” she asked, her head tilted.

“Nope, not even them. You come first. But we are telling everyone now, so please don’t think you have to keep this a secret.”

“Okay. I think it’s cool, Danno,” she said with a grin, reaching out to pat him on the arm. “As long as you’re happy.”

“Thanks, Gracie,” he said as he leaned forward and pulled her into a hug. “And you remember that you always come first, okay? Always. And any reaction or question that you have is fine, as long as you talk to me about it, yeah?”

“Yeah, I promise,” she said, her voice muffled against his shoulder. “Are we gonna see Steve today?”

“That’s up to you, baby. Do you want to?”

“Yeah, I haven’t seen him in a little while.”

“We’ll go over there after lunch, then.” Danny kissed the top of her head and then left her room, closing the door. He leaned against the wall next to her door and scrubbed both hands over his face as he heaved a deep breath. Poor Grace had already dealt with the news about Charlie, and now he was springing something else new on her, something else that might disrupt her family life. Luckily, he had the best kid in the world.

* * *

Steve opened his front door and was immensely relieved to see Grace running toward him for a hug. Danny had texted him to say that they were coming over, but he gave no indication as to how his conversation with Grace went. Judging from this reaction, though, it couldn’t have been all bad. As Steve dropped a kiss on the top of Grace’s head—man, when had she gotten so tall—he locked eyes with Danny, who nodded.

“Hey, Gracie, how are you?”

“Good,” she said, smiling a little shyly.

Charlie was behind her, coming up the walk a lot more slowly as he hung onto Danny’s hand, and Steve crouched down in front of him when they reached the door. God, he had no idea how anyone could look at this kid and not immediately think of Danny—let alone the hair, his eyes were an exact match. Right now he looked vaguely terrified, and Steve tried to make his smile as gentle as he could. “Hi, buddy. I’m Steve.”

He held his hand out, and after a long moment of staring at each other, Charlie patted his hand gently, making them all laugh. “C’mon, Charlie,” Grace said, reaching for his other hand. “There’s a beach in the backyard, I’ll show you.”

Steve stood up and grabbed the bag from Danny’s hand, touching his low back as he led him inside. “So it went okay?” he asked lowly.

“Yeah,” Danny said, exhaling heavily and shoving his hands into the pockets of his shorts. “She had a lot of questions, but she’s good. Thank god.”

“That’s great,” Steve said, and Danny returned his smile. He leaned down for the smallest peck of a kiss, but Danny wrapped his hand around the back of his neck and held him there, making the kiss solid but still chaste. Steve pulled back finally and squeezed his arm before walking toward the lanai door ahead of him. He stripped off his shirt and threw it over his shoulder, grinning when Danny’s sputter indicated that he made his target.

Later, when he and Grace were swimming, out of earshot of Danny and Charlie on the beach, he turned toward her and started treading water. “You sure you’re okay with this, kiddo? Me and Danno?”

“Yeah,” she said, with the same smile as before. “I don’t know if I want to call you Uncle Steve anymore, though.”

“Oh,” Steve said, a little taken aback. “Well, that’s fine. You can call me whatever you want.”

“That’s what Danno said. He even said I could call you Step-Steve if I wanted to.”

“Oh, he did, huh?” Steve said, laughing at the little gleam in Grace’s eye.

“Is just Steve okay?”

“That’s more than okay, that’s great. Whatever you want, sweetheart.”

“Okay,” Grace said, then surprised him with an ambush hug. He caught her and pretended to struggle in the water, making her laugh. “Can we go try to get Danno to come in the water?”

“Absolutely.”

* * *

“Okay,” Danny said with a sigh, closing Steve’s front door and then turning around to lean against it. “Well, that could have gone worse.”

“I think it was fine,” Steve said as he pressed a cold beer into Danny’s hand. “Rachel seemed—”

“Shocked? Surprised?” he scoffed. He walked toward the back, and Steve trailed after him. “We could have knocked her over with a feather.”

Danny leaned against the lanai railing and took a long swig of his beer. He and Rachel had gotten to the point where they could be in the same room together, at least, but he still did not relish any contact that was required between them. And he certainly never thought he would be telling her that he was in a relationship with a man. At least Steve was there, as a buffer of sorts, and their conversation had been brief but to-the-point.

“What, what’s wrong?” Steve asked, finally, after several minutes of silence between them.

“Nothing,” Danny said, shaking his head.

“Oh, come on, you have your pessimistic, everything’s-about-to-go-wrong face on.”

Danny huffed a laugh and rubbed at the back of his neck. “I thought you were the one with the faces.”

“I’m getting pretty good at reading yours, too, especially that one, which is my least favorite. What’s up?”

“You know…I’m kind of a package deal here,” he said. He could feel Steve’s eyes on him, but he kept his own gaze straight ahead, pretending to be enthralled by the waves. “Grace and Charlie, I mean. It’s just—it’s a lot, okay? And we never really talked about that, in relation to us.”

Steve tugged at his arm, and Danny had the childish urge to keep his face turned away. He finally looked at Steve, though, who was frowning. “Danno. You know that I love Grace as if she were my own, and I can’t wait to get closer to Charlie.”

“I—I know.”

“Do you not believe me?” he asked quietly, and Danny winced. He knew that Steve loved Grace, of course, there was plenty of evidence to back that up. And god, after today, he had no hesitations about him and Charlie. It didn’t take long at all for Charlie to warm up to Steve, and before long he was chattering away in that rambling toddler way while Steve paid rapt attention, nodding and asking questions as if what Charlie was saying were the most important words he’d ever heard. Grace had eventually coaxed them all into the water, and Steve towed Charlie around on his shoulders, making him shriek with laughter.

“No, it’s not that. It’s…they’re so special to you, I can see it. And it’s not that I don’t believe it, not at all, it’s just a little overwhelming. It’s hard to believe, in a _good_ way, and it’s a little hard for me to express how important that is and how much I appreciate it.”

“You? Having a hard time expressing something?” Steve said, smiling gently, and Danny dropped his gaze with a laugh. “But hey. They’re the top priority your life, so of course they’re important to me. More than anything.”

Danny chuckled wetly and took a deep breath. He was _not_ going to cry over this, that was ridiculous. “Yeah, well, you’re up there, too.”

Steve wrapped an arm around his shoulders, dropping a kiss on the top of his head as Danny turned his face into Steve’s chest. “I love you, don’t forget.”

“I love you, too, babe.”

* * *

“Hello, everyone!”

Max was standing in the office doorway, waving, and Steve, along with everyone else, turned and greeted him.

“Hey, Max,” Kono said. “How are you?”

“Just fine, thank you, Officer Kalakaua. And how are you, how is your arm healing?”

“Pretty well,” she said as she flexed playfully. “Gonna have a wicked scar, though.”

“And how about you, Detective Williams? It was your ribs, correct?”

“All better,” he said, twisting his torso obediently, and Steve grinned.

“That’s wonderful to hear. I brought the hard copy files for you, from the latest case.”

“Thanks, Max,” Steve said with a smile, reaching out to take the files. He shifted toward Danny and handed them off. “We could have come to get these, though, on our next time by your office.”

“Well, it’s a beautiful day, and I wanted to take a little walk. Oh,” he said suddenly, his eyes widening as his gaze swung between Steve and Danny. “I see that congratulations are in order. I apologize for not saying anything sooner, I wasn’t aware.”

Steve furrowed his brow and turned toward him more fully. “What are you talking about? Congratulating who?”

“Congratulating you, Commander McGarrett, and Detective Williams on the recent switch in your relationship status, from professional to personal. That must not have been an easy decision, and I admire your courage.”

It took every single ounce of training Steve had to keep his face passive. Kono quite literally choked on the sip of water she was taking, and Chin jumped to wipe the stray drops off the computer table.

“What are you talking about?” he asked, crossing his arms and pointedly not looking at Danny.

Max gasped slightly and covered his mouth. “Oh! Have you not yet shared this development with your colleagues? I find that hard to believe, considering how transparent it is,” he said. Everyone must have looked as confused as Steve felt because he continued. “The entire time that I have been present, your hips have been pointed to each other. Your touch lingered when you handed Detective Williams the files, and your pupils dilated at the sight of each other. Anyone even slightly trained in profiling could tell that the two of you are in a romantic relationship, probably one that started recently.”

Steve glanced down at the way he was standing and cursed inside his head. Shit, were they really that obvious?

“And judging by the look on your faces, I am getting the impression that this is one of those personal matters into which I should not have butted my nose,” Max said, backing away. “I apologize, and I will see myself out.”

“Wait, Max,” Danny called out, and he stopped in the doorway. “No, don’t feel bad, c’mon.”

“Was I mistaken? That would be strange,” he said, and Steve sighed.

“No, you’re not wrong,” he said quietly. “There has been a, uh, recent development in our relationship, but we haven’t told anyone.”

The room fell completely silent, and Steve winced, a little afraid to turn around. He finally did, though, and relaxed a bit at Danny’s small smile. The others looked somewhat confused, though nowhere near angry or upset, and the knot in his chest loosened even more.

“Are you serious?” Kono said finally, a small hint of a smile breaking through. “The two of you are, like, together? For real?”

“No joke,” Danny said with a nod. “Crazy, right?”

“Okay, I won’t lie,” Grover said, lifting his hands and gesturing to Chin and Kono. “When I first got here, I had to ask these two what your deal was.”

They all laughed, and Chin nodded. “He did. We told him that we might have suspected something a long time ago, but not really so much anymore.”

“Wow, really?” Steve asked.

“I had my suspicions at the beginning, too,” Max chimed in.

“You two were very, uh, combative back then,” Kono explained. “And we didn’t know if it was like, some kinda fight-or-fuck type of situation.”

“Oh, we were most definitely not doing this back then,” Danny said, gesturing between them.

“Maybe it would have helped with the fighting, though,” Chin said with a smirk, and Steve groaned, burying his face in his hands.

“So how long has this been going on?” Kono asked.

“Since, uh, since the beginning of this case, basically.”

“Jeez, no wonder you were so freaked out when Danny got hurt,” Grover said

“Did you act like a jerk?” Danny asked, turning to Steve, but Grover answered before he could even open his mouth.

“It was a miracle that he actually let me drive my own truck. And he might’ve verbally assaulted some innocent staff members at the hospital.”

“Hey!” Steve protested, as they all laughed. “I totally had my cool that day.”

“Okay, but in their defense, that’s not exactly unusual,” Kono chimed in, then she turned to Max. “You can understand why we didn’t exactly notice a change. I mean, when you think about Afghanistan and—”

“Could we maybe not do the whole trip-down-memory-lane thing?” Danny said with a grimace, making a slashing motion near his throat.

“I really am so sorry,” Max said, looking chagrined. “I thought people knew—I mean, you _are_ all detectives.”

“Maybe _you’re_ the one that should be a detective, Max,” Kono said, smiling, and he chuckled.

“Oh, no, thank you. I much prefer to deal with the deceased.”

“And we really were going to tell you guys this week,” Danny said. “I just told Grace over the weekend.”

“Aw,” Kono said with a smile. “How’d she take it?”

“Well, I am sadly no longer _Uncle_ Steve,” he said, and they all laughed. “But besides that, she’s good. What about, uh, what about you guys?”

The three of them exchanged a long, loaded look, and Steve felt that tightening in his chest again. But then Kono turned toward them, dimples flashing, and he breathed a little easier, belatedly realizing that he and Danny had drifted closer to each other.

“Are you kidding?” she said, hugging Danny and then Steve. “Of course we’re happy.”

“Ditto,” Chin said with a little smile, and Grover nodded.

“So should we expect a lot of PDA in the office?” Kono asked. “Can we have a little preview?”

Danny chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck. “Ah, that would be a no.”

“Aw, c’mon,” Kono said, with a vicious smirk. “Just one kiss?”

“Nope!” Steve said quickly, fighting a blush. Fleeing to his office seemed like the best course of action at the moment, so he backed away in that direction.

“Just you wait for Christmas!” she called out after him. “Mistletoe, I’m gonna get you guys so bad!”


	10. Chapter Ten

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic could end with chapter 9, plot-wise. But if you’d like some more sexy times...here you go, please enjoy 6500 words of porn! (This chapter is definitely rated E.)

Danny opened his eyes blearily and stretched, twisting to catch a glimpse of the clock on Steve’s nightstand—7:09 on a Saturday. Miraculously, not only was Steve still in bed, he was still asleep, and Danny smiled. Somehow, between them, nothing had changed—the bickering, the arguing, Danny’s constant rants about Steve not listening to him on a variety of measures—but on the other hand, everything had. They shared a pillow and soft words in bed, and Danny had more leverage now to actually make Steve talk about what he was feeling. The orgasms were a nice touch, too.

Steve rolled over with a little groan, shoving his face into Danny’s neck and his dick against Danny’s hip. Danny’s smile widened, and he brought his far hand over to rub at Steve’s chest as he dropped kisses over whatever skin he could reach. Steve snuffled—Danny never thought he would find that cute, seriously, what was his life—and tilted his head the bare minimum required for their lips to meet. It was sloppy and sweet, and Danny’s dick perked up, in eager anticipation of some lazy, sleepy morning sex.

But with a hand on his chest, Steve put a little space in between them and sat up a bit. “So I’ve been doing some research,” he said, sounding far more awake than he looked. Danny blinked, trying to make the internal shift in his brain from sex to conversation.

“Well, that’s an interesting euphemism for watching porn.”

“I—I haven’t been watching _porn_ ,” Steve said with a huff, and Danny laughed. “Actual, non-porn research.”

“Uh-huh. And what exactly did this _research_ entail?”

Steve sighed and shifted his gaze to somewhere past Danny’s shoulder. “Look, I don’t know about you, but I kinda miss, you know… _fucking_ someone. So that’s what I’d like to try.”

Danny paused for a second. “Hey, hey, wait a minute, buddy, if you think that just because I’m _smaller_ that means—”

Steve rolled his eyes and grabbed Danny by the nape of his neck, bringing their mouths together. Danny was onto his trick—Steve often kissed him to shut him up, and to be honest, it usually worked. “Of course I don’t think that, come on. We can, you know, switch. Or not,” he added hurriedly, “if one of us doesn’t like it. But I’m willing to try.”

“I am, too,” Danny admitted. “I mean, it must be good, right?”

“Well, I assume millions of people wouldn’t do it if it really sucked,” Steve said dryly, and Danny smacked him on the arm.

“The guys in porn certainly seem to enjoy it,” he said with a smirk, and Steve laughed.

“So _you’re_ the one who’s been watching porn.”

“It’s called research, babe, come on.”

“So, about the preparation…”

Danny immediately clapped his hands over his ears and shook his head. “Nope, nope, nope. Sorry, babe, but there are limits as to what I can discuss with you. I can do that research on my own, thank you.”

Steve lifted his hands in apology and mimed zipping his lips, waiting until Danny reluctantly lowered his hands before pouncing. “I did read, though, that all you really have to do is go to the bathroom beforehand.”

Danny groaned and covered his eyes with his hands, shaking his head in dismay. “What did I _just_ say, huh?”

“Sorry,” he said, completely unrepentant, and Danny scowled.

“God, what have you been reading? _Gay Sex for Dummies_?”

“It’s _The Beginner’s Guide to Gay Sex_ , actually.”

“I can’t tell if you’re joking or not, and that scares me.”

“Okay,” Steve said with a shrug, and Danny sighed. He was pretty sure he knew what he would find if he went prowling around Steve’s nightstand.

But before he even knew what was happening, Steve was straddling him with a bottle of lube in his hand that he must have magicked out of thin air. “Hey!” Danny yelped, squirming. “What the hell?”

“Oh, relax,” Steve said as he reached for his dick. Danny arched up into his grip because, well, he was naked and it felt good. “I’m not gonna…you know. Just relax.”

“But wait, why do I have to go first?” he asked. The way he was thrusting his hips into Steve’s hand may have been belying the heat in his words, though—damn it.

“Because _I’ve_ been the one doing research,” Steve said prissily, “so shut up and lie down.”

Danny huffed a laugh and obeyed. He spent a lot of time going along with Steve’s harebrained ideas, and not that he would admit it or anything, but they usually worked. Steve’s hand was slick with lube and it glided easily along his dick, which was fully hard now. He slid his other hand down a little farther, pressing gently against the sensitive skin before he slipped one finger inside, making Danny inhale sharply.

It didn’t hurt, exactly, but he wouldn’t call it comfortable, either. Steve bit his lip, clearly concentrating, and Danny smiled in spite of his slight discomfort. He wasn’t used to seeing vulnerability on Steve’s face—outside a hospital room, maybe, that is—and he liked it.

“Is it weird?” he asked, and Danny laughed.

“Of _course_ it’s fucking weird. Come up here,” he said, tugging at Steve’s free arm so he could kiss him. The positioning of his limbs was a little awkward, but Steve and his ridiculous monkey arms could handle it. Kissing Steve made everything better, so if Danny was gonna have a finger in his ass, then he was at least going to make out with Steve while it was happening.

Steve did _something_ with his finger, Danny didn’t really know what, and he ripped his mouth away from Steve’s to let out what even he could tell was a fairly indecent groan.

“Yeah? Not so weird now, huh?” Steve asked, sounding more than a bit smug and maybe a little breathless, to boot.

“Oh my god, just stop talking,” Danny lied as he arched up further. Fuck, whatever Steve was doing felt _different_ and so good, like it was lighting his body up from the inside.

Steve kissed him one more time, wet and dirty, but when he started to pull away Danny didn’t let him go, bringing both his hands up to tangle in Steve’s hair and keep him there. Steve twisted his finger, or something, and when Danny had to break away to breathe, he took advantage of his distraction and kissed down Danny’s chest. There was no teasing today, thank god, no beating around the bush, just Steve and Steve’s tongue and the head of Danny’s dick and the noises that Steve was drawing out of him.

“Shit,” Danny bit out, forcing himself to keep his hips still, lest he do anything to dislodge Steve’s apparently magic finger. “God, Steve, you gotta—”

“What?” Steve asked, lifting his head and sounding annoyingly cheerful, at least for how much that he was driving Danny batshit insane.

Danny gritted his teeth and fisted a hand in the sheets. “Just…just don’t stop, _fuck_.”

He listened, for once in his life, and Danny breathed carefully against all the sensations—it was a regular occurrence now, but he still couldn’t believe it every time he looked down and saw Steve’s head between his legs. He partly wanted to kick himself for missing out on literally years of this, but they’d both made the point that it definitely wouldn’t have worked earlier in their friendship. Plus, they were certainly making up for lost time.

The build-up seemed shorter and more intense this time, like it was hitting different parts of his body, and Danny shuddered through his climax with a long, low groan. He covered his face with his hands, breathing hard, and felt Steve come up and hover over him again, on all fours.

“That was your prostate,” he said, wiping the corner of his mouth with his thumb. The smugness was out in full-force now, and Danny growled.

“Shut _up_ ,” he said, using the last of his strength to flip Steve onto his back. “Your turn.”

* * *

Steve paid no attention to anything except getting Danny inside and undressed as fast as possible. They’d been working on a hellish case for the past week, with barely enough time to shovel food down their throats and catch a couple hours of sleep at a time, but they were finally finished, with the promise of a free weekend stretched out in front of them. And Steve was determined to take full advantage of it.

Tossing his keys in the general direction of the side table, Steve shoved Danny against the front door and tugged his damn button-down shirt out of his pants. “Hey,” Danny mumbled into the kiss as Steve started to work on his buttons. “How about this?”

“What?” he replied, not really giving Danny a chance to respond what with his tongue in his mouth and all. Danny eventually gripped his arms to push him back and put enough space in between them to speak.

“Your dick, my ass, tonight,” he said with a firm nod, looking up at Steve and poking him in the chest. “Right now, actually.”

Steve’s mouth dropped open a little, though it wasn’t really a surprise. They’d spent a lot of time over the past few weeks with fingers in various places and on one memorable occasion, tongues—hadn’t that been an experience.

“Oh,” he said, trying to hide his slight disappointment. “I thought I was gonna—”

“Sorry, babe, lost your chance,” Danny said, with a devilish little grin, and Steve laughed. Who would’ve ever thought they’d be competing over who got to be on the receiving end.

“I think I’ll survive,” he said, his dick filling at the thought because _yeah_ , fucking Danny. He guided Danny toward the stairs, and considering that they couldn’t keep their hands off each other, it was slow-going.

“Steve,” Danny said, sounding exasperated as he stopped to unfasten his belt. “It will be faster if we just—”

Steve cut him off with a kiss and pressed him against the railing, keeping him steady with one hand on his back as he continued to work his belt. Danny surprised him by slipping past him, but he didn’t make it far before Steve yanked at the back of his pants and spun him around. He was a couple steps below Danny, and it was so easy to steady him by wrapping his arms around his ass.

“You do know that if I break my leg on the stairs, we won’t be able to have sex, right?” Danny asked, and Steve snorted.

“As if I would let that happen, come on.”

“Oh, right, I forgot,” Danny said, throwing his arms up even as Steve tightened his grip around his waist. “You can defy gravity, obviously.”

“Shh,” he said as he leaned up to kiss him. Danny stopped talking immediately and made a pleased noise.

“Oh, I like this,” he said, and Steve grinned up at him.

“Yeah?”

“You’re too damn tall the rest of the time,” he said against his lips. He let Danny have full control, launching a veritable siege on Steve’s mouth and plunging his tongue deep, until he finally pulled back and tugged at Steve’s hand. “Okay, I think we’ve pushed our luck enough. Time for a horizontal surface, please.”

Steve scowled, pretending to be mad, and followed Danny up the rest of the stairs and into the bedroom. “You suck all the fun out of everything.”

“I’ll show you something about sucking,” he said, undoing Steve’s pants with stunning alacrity and shoving them down.

Danny started to lower himself to the ground, but Steve huffed and tugged at his shoulder, situating him on the bed instead. “Damn it, Danny, your knee, you twisted it yesterday. Jeez, be careful.”

“Oh my god, we _are_ officially an old married couple.”

“Who are you calling old? You’re older than me, buddy.”

Steve was pretty confident that no one had ever _rolled their eyes at him_ while sucking his dick—not that he could see, anyway—but he knew he never wanted it any other way.

He also knew that he had to make this last, and he had no chance if Danny kept doing that thing with his tongue. So he regretfully pushed him away and pulled him to his feet again to finish taking off his shirt.

They were both naked by the time they hit the bed, and Steve fumbled in the nightstand for the lube while Danny tried to distract him with his sneaky fingers on Steve’s ribs. Finally he found it and pushed Danny down on his back with a growl. He slid two fingers in fast, right away, exactly how he had learned Danny liked it—he arched up into it so deliciously each time, with this little whimper that went straight to Steve’s dick, and it never failed to send the best rush through him.

“Oh, _fuck_ , Steve, that’s—”

“Tell me,” he said, knowing that he could usually get more out of Danny when he was like this. He fucking loved it when Danny rambled in bed, like he was too aroused to even consider his normal brain-to-mouth filter.

“I—”

“C’mon, tell me,” Steve repeated as he crooked his fingers, making Danny pant and turn his face into the pillow.

“God, you’re so…you’re so good at that, shit. Give me more.”

“Like this?” he asked, slipping in another finger.

Danny squirmed, his feet and hands scrabbling for purchase on the bed as if it was difficult to stay still. “It’s so—”

Steve waited for a few seconds, but when the rest of the sentence didn’t come, he withdrew his fingers abruptly and held Danny down with a hand on his chest.

“ _Fuck_ ,” he said sharply, eyes wide, breathing hard. “What the hell!”

Steve smirked but didn’t say anything, instead leaning down to capture Danny’s lips in a fierce kiss.

“Fine, I’ll just do it myself then,” Danny said when they separated, bringing one hand down, but Steve snarled and grabbed his hand before it even reached his hip. If Danny was still snarky, then he wasn’t doing a good enough job. He took both of Danny’s wrists in his left hand and braced them against the bed above his head.

Danny exhaled shakily but didn’t protest, he just looked up at his hands in Steve’s grip. “Fuck.”

“What?”

“I love your hands, okay?” he snapped. “Is that what you want me to say? Your fucking giant hands drive me insane, no matter what they’re doing, especially if they’re—”

Danny cut himself off with a shout as Steve shoved his three fingers back in. He braced his forehead against Danny’s shoulder and breathed heavily, grinding his dick absent-mindedly against Danny’s thigh. “Especially if they’re what?” he asked hoarsely.

“Jesus fuck, as long as they’re doing _that_ ,” Danny said, and he satisfyingly went silent for a little while, his eyes glazing over as Steve continued to work him open. “C’mon, babe, I’m ready.”

Steve shook his head stubbornly as he licked and sucked at Danny’s nipple—he really wanted to make sure that Danny was ready, and he didn’t care how long it took. “A little more.”

“Seriously, I’m about to come,” he said, struggling in Steve’s grip. “And this time, I’d rather come around your dick than around your fingers.”

Steve groaned at the thought and bit lightly at Danny’s collarbone. He stilled the movement of his fingers but didn’t withdraw. “You gotta tell me you want it, babe.”

Danny shook his head with that little grin. “God, you’re such a…”

“You seem to be having a little trouble finishing your sentences today.”

“Yeah, well it’s kinda hard to concentrate with those magic fingers.”

Steve curled his fingers to nudge against Danny’s prostate one more time, grinning when he yelped. “I’m such a what?”

“You’re great,” he said, his expression impossibly fond even through his evident arousal.

“You’re great, too,” he said softly, dropping his head down, and Danny smiled into the kiss.

“However,” he said, his voice suddenly low and dark. “I will swiftly reevaluate my opinion of your greatness if you do not fuck me _right now_.”

Steve lunged for the nightstand, almost sliding off the bed in his haste and cursing sharply when the condom slipped out of his slick fingers.

“Hang on there, Rambo,” Danny said, laughing as he reached over to get another one. “Let me do it.”

Steve held his breath, trying to control his shivers while Danny ripped the package open with his teeth and unrolled the condom onto him, and then let it out in a rush when Danny tugged him back down to his side. After one last deep, searching kiss, Steve flipped Danny over so that they were spooning. He missed seeing his face, but he knew Danny was very much in favor of whatever position would be the most comfortable, and Steve’s research had told him this would be the one.

He twisted back to get another squirt of lube and carefully slicked himself up, then braced himself up on his bottom elbow. Danny probably wouldn’t appreciate being asked again if he was ready, so he just went for it. The first push in elicited a sharp gasp from him, but it was drowned out by Danny’s low groan.

Steve paused, forcing his body to keep still, and curled his bottom hand around Danny’s shoulder. “You good, babe?”

He nodded. “Yeah, just—just gimme a second.”

Steve heaved a breath and tried to think about literally anything else rather than the overwhelming tightness surrounding his dick. It wasn’t the easiest thing he’d ever done.

Danny wiggled against him after a minute, which Steve took as a sign that he could move some more. He pushed forward, excruciatingly slowly, but eventually, his hips were against the soft skin of Danny’s ass.

Danny’s moan was tinged with a little bit of pain, so Steve kissed his neck and reached for his hand, which was clenched in the sheets in front of his chest. “I love you,” he said, slipping his hand into Danny’s so that he was gripping his fingers instead.

He laughed, choked-off and beautiful. “Of course you love me _now_.”

“Hey, I love you all the time,” he protested between kisses as he worked his way up Danny’s neck.

“Oh, that’s what they all say.”

“Really? All the people that have done this?” Steve asked as he slid in an impossible fraction of an inch deeper.

Danny’s breathing picked up audibly, and he twisted, trying to bring their lips together. Steve leaned forward with a smile, indulging the awkward angle to kiss him, sloppy and lazy and perfect.

“You okay?” he whispered against Danny’s lips.

“Yeah,” he said, his voice hoarse. “It’s…it’s a lot, but it’s good. You can move.”

Steve took a deep breath—or tried to, it was a little shaky—and pulled back about halfway before sliding back in.

“Fuck,” Danny bit out, his whole arm flexing as his hand clenched in the sheet again, and Steve froze.

“Good or bad?”

“Good, good, good,” he gasped, mostly into the pillow. “Keep going.”

Danny’s erection had flagged a little bit, but it perked right back up in Steve’s hand, still slick with lube. “Shit, Steve,” he said, arching back against him, and fuck, his name coming out of Danny’s mouth in that low, sexy rasp was literally the best thing Steve had ever heard.

He kept the thrusts easy and fairly short, and he tried different angles until he stumbled upon the one that made Danny cry out and jerk in his grip. It took some false starts and a lot of coordination, but he eventually found a rhythm between thrusting and stroking Danny’s dick.

“Come on, Danny,” he said, forcing the words out between heavy breaths. “You said you wanted to come around my dick, here’s your chance.”

“Harder, c’mon.”

There was nothing that Steve wanted to do more, but this was their first time and he was keeping it gentle, no matter how much— _fuck_ —no matter how much Danny whined and pushed back against him. He made his thrusts a little longer, and that seemed to appease Danny, at least for the moment.

All of a sudden, Danny choked off a sob as he arched back toward Steve, long ropes of come landing high on his chest and dripping down onto the bed. Steve’s mouth was open on a gasp, and he held Danny as he fucked him through it. Jesus fuck, he could _feel_ Danny’s orgasm around his dick, and it brought him right to the edge.

“Mmm, you’re like some kind of sex god, I swear,” Danny said drowsily, and Steve stuttered on a laugh as he thrust forward, desperately chasing his own orgasm now.

Danny slumped over a bit and Steve went with him, bracing his weight on his outstretched arms. Just three more gentle snaps of his hips and he was there, coming with a pained groan as he tried not to collapse onto Danny. “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he chanted, blowing out a breath as he slowly came down.

Steve let his eyes fall shut as he pressed an open-mouthed kiss to Danny’s shoulder blade and just fucking drowned in the contented feeling that had washed over him and settled into his bones. Eventually, when he regained the ability to move, he untangled himself from Danny and stumbled into the bathroom—damn shaky legs—to dispose of the condom and get a warm, damp washcloth. Danny appeared to be half-asleep when he climbed back in bed, so he quickly cleaned off his chest and arranged them back into a spooning position.

“Mmm, thanks,” Danny murmured, his eyes still closed, and he patted Steve clumsily on the arm. “G’night, babe.”

“Night, Danno.” Steve dropped a kiss beneath his ear and joined him in sleep.

* * *

Steve blinked his eyes open and yawned as he stretched luxuriously. Danny was sprawled out on his stomach, his arms up around his pillow, but his breathing was shallow enough that Steve was pretty sure he was awake, or at least close to it.

“Morning,” he said, rolling closer, and Danny grumbled something in response that might have been a greeting. “How do you feel?”

“What do you think?” he said, his voice muffled by the pillow. “My ass hurts.”

Steve bit his lip to stifle a smile and rested his hand on Danny’s low back. “I’m sorry.”

“No, you’re not, you jerk. Stop laughing at me and go make me breakfast.”

Grinning, Steve pressed one last kiss to Danny’s shoulder and stood up, stretching one more time. He rifled through the pile of clothes next to the bed for his boxers and headed downstairs. After starting the coffeemaker—which had quickly become his very first task of the day as soon as Danny started to spend the night often—he peered into the fridge…what was appropriate for a celebratory yay-we-fucked breakfast?

Bacon, he was pretty sure. Definitely bacon.

By the time Danny staggered down the stairs, the bacon was done, as were the eggs and the toast—dark and covered in butter, just like Danny liked. Steve automatically smiled at the sight of him, clad only in his boxers with a tremendous case of bedhead. He also appeared to be limping, just a little bit. No one else would probably be able to tell, but Steve considered himself an expert when it came to, well, anything about Danny’s body.

“Not a word,” he said immediately, holding up his hand. “Not one fucking word.”

Steve was dutifully silent as Danny walked very carefully across the kitchen and took the plate from Steve’s hands. He looked at the kitchen table for a long second, tilting his head, and then kept walking through to the living room. “I’ll be eating this on the couch, thank you!” he called out over his shoulder, and Steve laughed.

He followed him, balancing his own plate as well as two cups of coffee, and joined Danny on the couch. They ate in silence for several minutes, and Danny slowly perked up as his coffee mug gradually emptied. After he drained the last drops, he stretched his arms over his head.

“I will most definitely be getting you back for _this_ ,” he said, vaguely gesturing to his ass, “as soon as I’ve digested my breakfast.”

“Looking forward to it,” Steve said, toasting him with his coffee mug and a leer.

“You’re looking pretty cocky over there.”

“Ooh, nice choice of words,” he said, grinning widely now, and Danny huffed.

“You are the actual worst.”

“Is that so? I seem to remember you singing a very different tune last night. What was it you called me? Oh, yeah, a _sex god_.” He didn’t care what Danny thought, his smug smile was totally warranted.

“Okay, seriously, shut up,” Danny said, pitching a piece of pineapple at Steve’s face, who caught it easily and popped it in his mouth. “I was incapacitated by orgasm, obviously, so see if I ever call you that again. And I was gonna take it easy on you, but I’m not anymore.”

“Really? You promise?”

“Yeah, that’s enough,” Danny said as he stood up and snatched Steve’s empty plate out of his hand. “Go upstairs.”

“What happened to ‘digesting your breakfast?’” Steve asked, complete with air quotes.

“I think I’ll survive. And if I get a cramp, I’ll just lie down and make you do all the work. Or maybe I’ll just do that anyway.”

“Wow, lazy in bed already,” Steve said, smirking when Danny scowled. “The honeymoon period must be over, what a shame.”

“Go upstairs and take off your pants,” he said. Steve stood up, toe-to-toe with Danny, and pushed his boxers off his hips. With a long look, Danny tilted his head and pursed his lips. “Huh. I don’t think that was the sequence I specified.”

“Just trying to be, you know, expedient,” Steve said with a grin. Danny huffed, though Steve could definitely see the little smile, and headed into the kitchen.

“Go upstairs or I will fuck you on the couch, I swear!” he yelled over his shoulder.

Steve laughed and took the stairs two at a time. He was a not-so-secret fan of Danny ordering him around, and he was taking full advantage of that right now. He fell back into bed, taking a second to enjoy the smell of Danny lingering on the sheets, and fidgeted eagerly at the sound of feet on the stairs.

“You ready? You sure?” Danny said with a little grin as he shucked off his boxers, right there in the doorway. He was half-hard already, and Steve licked his lips in anticipation.

“Oh, yeah,” he said, spreading his arms with only a bit of false bravado. “Bring it.”

Danny laughed and crawled on top of him. “Like this?” he asked, resting some of his weight onto Steve, and he nodded, unable to form words at the moment. Danny had eventually gotten him to admit—with _words_ , God—that Steve very much enjoyed being held down by him.

Danny kissed him, slow and sweet, and Steve got lost in it for several minutes before he remembered that his dick was hard and he _really_ wanted to do this. He thrust up against Danny’s stomach, and he smiled into the kiss.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, we’ll get there,” Danny murmured. “Relax.”

“ _You_ relax,” he shot back, then immediately wished he could stuff those words back into his mouth.

Sure enough, Danny paused and then rolled to the side, thwarting Steve’s attempts to keep him on top of him. “Are you nervous?” he asked, resting his hand on Steve’s hip.

Every emotional barrier in his head was yelling _deny, deny, deny_ , but he gritted his teeth and fought the impulse. “Maybe,” he forced out, finally.

Danny kissed him, gentler than before, and Steve relished in the familiar sensation. “It’ll be fine, I promise.”

“What if I don’t like it?” he asked softly. That was his real fear, after all, that he wouldn’t be able to pull his weight in this part of their relationship and that Danny would be unhappy.

“That would be 100% fine. I’d be perfectly happy to, you know, shoulder the load in that area. Plus, that way we’d conform to what everyone would probably think about you being a top, and living up to stereotypes is always fun, right?”

Steve chuckled. “But then you wouldn’t get to—”

Danny cut him off with a kiss. “Okay, this seems like a lot of worry for something that hasn’t even happened yet. And that’s usually my area of expertise, not yours, so this role reversal is freaking me out a bit,” he said, smiling when Steve laughed again. “Plus, I’m pretty sure you’ll like it.”

“Really?” he asked, immediately reaching for Danny’s hips as he slid closer.

“Mhmm. And I’m a pro now, so you’re in good hands.”

“Well, that’s certainly true.”

Danny hitched Steve’s thigh over his hip, making room for his hand, and Steve gulped as Danny’s slick fingers rubbed along his balls and behind. This was another familiar sensation—or it had _become_ one, at least—and he pushed back against Danny’s hand when he slid one finger in. “C’mon,” he said impatiently, using his heel against Danny’s ass to tug him closer. “More.”

Danny laughed and shook his head. “Have you ever heard of patience? You seemed pretty patient last night.”

“Well, that was different,” he said flippantly because of course it was—it was Danny.

“You make no sense,” Danny said, but he was smiling and he did slip in another finger alongside the first one. “I have half a mind to make you come, just like this. You’ll be relaxed, at least.”

Steve shook his head stubbornly and wrapped an arm around Danny’s neck. “No way.”

“Okay, okay. It felt pretty crazy, anyway.”

“What did?” Steve asked, his brain not firing as quickly as usual.

“Last night. Coming with you inside me.”

Steve groaned and tipped his head forward, mouthing mindlessly at Danny’s neck. “Yeah?” he asked gruffly. “Tell me.”

“Oh, yeah. Very different—electric, kinda. Hard to explain.”

Okay, they needed to get this show on the road right now before Steve came all over Danny’s stomach. “C’mon, then,” he said, barely moving his lips against the skin below Danny’s ear. “Fuck me, do it.”

He stilled his fingers and nudged at Steve’s face with his nose until they were kissing, deep and messy and wet and lush and yeah, this was not really helping Steve’s problem. “Come on, please,” he murmured into the kiss.

Danny hissed and withdrew his fingers, levering himself up onto his knees and reaching over to the nightstand. He wished that he could help Danny with the condom, he really did, but he looked like he had it pretty well under control and besides, Steve really had to concentrate on not coming right now.

When Danny kneeled over him and kissed him again, Steve wrapped both arms around his back. The blunt head of Danny’s dick against him was startling, and he accidentally bit down on his lip. “Oh, shit, Danny,” he said, pulling back with a wince. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” he said with a little laugh, and Steve was transfixed by Danny’s tongue as it rubbed the red spot on his lip. “I always figured that sex with you would be a little violent, anyway.”

Steve laughed and then arched up in surprise when Danny nudged inside him. He must have made some kind of desperate noise when he gripped Danny’s arms because he stopped immediately. “You okay?”

He nodded—there was definitely pressure, and a little pain, but it also felt really fucking good, a lot better than he had anticipated. Danny continued to inch forward, but it wasn’t quite enough for Steve and he pulled at Danny’s ass until he was all the way in.

Danny landed on his elbows with a surprised grunt, his cheek right next to Steve’s. “Holy fuck, oh my god.”

“Shit, shit, shit,” Steve chanted, trying to relax against the pressure. The little tickle of pain had been replaced with pleasure, and he felt dizzy with it already. He needed more, right the fuck now. “Fuck, Danny, come on.”

“Okay, you may not need a minute, but _I_ do,” he said, resting more of his weight on Steve. “So we’re gonna hang out here for a second.”

Steve laughed, as best as he could under Danny’s weight, and rubbed his hand up and down his back. He tilted his head to kiss his cheek, relishing the scratch of stubble against his lips, and whispered in his ear. “Are you okay now? Do you need some more time to get used to the dick in your ass? Oh, wait, that’s—”

“Okay,” Danny interrupted him as he lifted himself back onto his hands, smirk firmly in place. “I’m _so_ sorry for wanting to make sure that this lasted longer than 30 seconds.”

“Apology accepted,” he said gravely, but Danny got him back with a firm snap of his hips, making him throw his head back with a moan.

“Oh, Jesus,” he said, a desperate note tinging his voice that he barely recognized.

He tilted his pelvis up and tried to thrust back against Danny, but he laid a heavy hand on Steve’s hip to hold him down. “Hey, hey, relax. I will do the work, you will lay there.”

“Oh, I will? Can I do this?” he asked, sliding a hand down his stomach toward his dick.

“Nope,” Danny said as he reached out to stop his hand. “That’s mine, too.”

Steve growled in frustration, but he didn’t really mean it. This felt so good, he was willing to do whatever Danny wanted to drag it out as long as possible. He shifted the angle then, though, so that he was pressing at Steve’s prostate with every stroke, and Steve was suddenly pretty sure that wasn’t going to last much longer at all.

“Danny,” he said weakly, swallowing to find some more moisture in his throat. “God, please don’t—”

Danny clearly misunderstood his tone and stilled his hips immediately. “Don’t what?” he asked, and Steve’s resulting groan was a lot more of a whine than he was proud of.

“Just—just don’t stop,” he got out, and he exhaled greedily when Danny started moving again. “Please.”

Danny got a pretty good pace going and sucked his lower lip into his mouth as he locked eyes with Steve. He’d never felt so…so _vulnerable_ during sex before, and it definitely wasn’t just because he was getting fucked for the first time. It was something about the way Danny was looking down at him, like he was the most important thing in the world. It was weird, and admittedly corny, but he liked it.

“Are you close?” Danny asked, sounding pretty near to the edge himself, and Steve nodded. He really wanted— _needed_ —to come, but he was already sad that this was going to be over soon. His dick had been getting pretty decent friction from rubbing against Danny’s abs, but he got way closer to the tipping point when Danny leaned all his weight on one arm and reached down with the other hand to grip Steve’s dick.

“Just like that, Danny,” he said frantically, and a slight shiver went through him as Danny rubbed the head of his dick with his thumb.

Danny leaned down to press their lips together, but with their current level of coordination it was pretty much just open mouths and heavy breaths. Steve kissed back, though he had to keep breaking away to gasp in air, and eventually Danny moved his mouth down his jaw toward his neck. “Come for me, babe, c’mon,” he said, whisper-quiet in his ear.

Steve held his breath and let it out on a keening sigh as the pressure in the base of his spine released and he came all over his stomach. The pressure in his ass was still there, though, and Danny was fucking right—most of all his orgasm felt _different_ , bouncing around his body erratically and making him tremble more than usual. It seemed to last longer, too, especially as Danny continued to fuck him.

“Jesus, fuck, Steve,” Danny said, sounding as wrecked as Steve felt. “You’re so goddamn hot.”

“Your turn,” he gasped, summoning the last of his coordination to thrust up and clench against him. Danny gasped in a really satisfying way, his mouth dropping open slightly. There was nothing Steve liked more than watching Danny on the edge of his orgasm—his eyes got hooded, his cheeks pinked, his breath quickened.

Finally his face twisted in a painful grimace and Steve could feel him come, holy shit. Danny dropped down onto him completely, and Steve embraced him gratefully, pressing a kiss to his neck and enjoying the steady thump of his heart beat against his chest.

Just when he was about to move Danny so that he could breathe, he got to his knees with a sigh, making Steve wince as he slipped out. He disappeared into the bathroom for a second and then lounged in the doorway.

“So who’s the sex god now, huh?”

Steve caught one glimpse of Danny’s smug smile and turned his face into the pillow, groaning.

“I mean, I could say _I told you so_ right now because I said that you would like it,” he continued, “but I won’t.”

“You basically just did,” Steve pointed out. “And that’s a little presumptuous—you don’t know that I liked it. Maybe I hated it and was just playing along.”

“Really?” Danny asked, justifiably skeptical considering the way Steve was sprawled out, grinning and basically as relaxed as he’d ever been.

“Nah, of course I liked it,” he said, laughing as he reached for Danny and tugged him back down onto the bed.

“Yep, sex god, I knew it,” he said with a victorious fist pump, and Steve didn’t correct him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone who read and commented on this fic! I really appreciate it. ♥


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